The Parliamentary Assembly for the Mediterranean (PAM) is touted to leave Malta definitely in December 2019 or January of next year, sources have informed this newspaper.

Established in 2005, the PAM is the principal forum where the national Parliaments of the Euro-Mediterranean region deliberate to reach those strategic objectives towards the creation of the best political, social, economic and cultural environment and conditions for the fellow citizens of the member states.

The Headquarters of the General Secretariat of PAM were established in Malta in November 2007, in recognition of Malta’s strategic role and commitment.

The source explained that Secretary General of PAM Sergio Piazzi had left Malta with his secretary following a number of arguments with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, and that almost all of the PAM based in Malta had already left, save for one worker.

According to the source, the Ministry is also paying approximately €100,000 in rent for a property in St Julian’s, Palazzo Spinola, for PAM that is not even being used.

In fact, their correspondence is being signed from their offices in Bucharest, Romania – which is to be considered temporary.

“Palazzo Spinola has been in a state of abandonment for years, and PAM left years after the Ministry was not answering them.”

The idea is for PAM to move to Italy or France – an idea which may ring familiar to some.

The Times of Malta reported in 2017 that current President George Vella, then Foreign Affairs Minister, had said that the PAM is doing nothing right, so much so that there have been attempts to move the secretariat from Malta to France.

He had said that he was making his complaint public to erase any illusion that there were people who were working in favour of the Mediterranean. Although in the beginning there were valid debates, lately, even its secretary general was spending more time in Geneva than in Malta.