According to PES spokesman Tony Robinson, Hans-Gert Pöttering of the European People’s Party (EPP) reportedly alleged that the MLP could have problems with its European allies unless it was committed to the process of European unification.

No sooner had Mr Pöttering spoken than it emerged that his own group is to be the subject of a formal parliamentary inquiry, PES said.

The inquiry, announced by European Parliament president Pat Cox, will focus on the EPP Group’s alliance with anti-Europeans such as the British Conservatives.

Under European Parliament rules, political groups can be formed by members who have “political affinity”. They then have entitlement to public funding and staff.

But a recent deal between Mr Pöttering and British Conservative leader Michael Howard, allowing Tory MEPs to pursue their anti-European agenda, led to protests by PES Group leader Enrique Barón that the EPP was merely a “technical group”.

An inquiry could lead to the disbanding of the existing EPP Group and undermine its claim to public funding.

PES secretary-general Ton Beumer hit out yesterday after Maltese media reported the attack on the Malta Labour Party, a member of the PES.

Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Mr Beumer said: “I was astonished by the allegation. It is not the PES or the MLP who have problems – it is the EPP itself that is split from top to bottom.

“The EPP has formed unholy alliances with British Conservatives and (Italian prime minister Silvio) Berlusconi in Italy that now threaten to tear the whole organisation apart. Mr Pöttering is desperately trying to hold together a forced marriage of European integrationists, Eurosceptics and anti-Europeans.

“His attack on the MLP is stunning in its hypocrisy. The MLP is a full and active member of the PES. It shares the values and priorities of its sister parties in the 25 countries of the new European Union and we are proud to work with it.

“We are confident that the people of Malta will know that the MLP is the party they should support at the European election in the interests both of Malta and of Europe.