Malta’s second nominee for a post on the European Court of Auditors will be facing the European Parliament’s budgetary committee on Monday.

Leo Brincat, was removed from the post of Environment Minister in Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s reshuffle two months ago, is Malta’s second choice after the EP committee rejected the nomination of Toni Abela earlier this year.

Dr Abela could still have made it in a second vote at the European Parliament, but the former Labour Party deputy leader chose to withdraw his nomination and has since been named as a consultant to the government.

Dr Abela’s nomination for the ECA had started a domino effect in the Labour fold, as he announced his resignation from the PL deputy leadership well before the EP grilling. This led to Konrad Mizzi going on a one-man race to replace Dr Abela, but Dr Mizzi himself resigned two months later in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal. Earlier this month, Chris Cardona took over from Dr Mizzi as PL deputy leader for party affairs.

Dr Mizzi was also removed from the post of Energy and Health Minister in the 28 April reshuffle, in which also PM Muscat also removed Leo Brincat from the Cabinet and nominated him as Malta’s representative at the European Court of Auditors.

On Monday, Mr Brincat will be going through the same process as Dr Abela did, facing questions about his background and skills to hold such a sensitive post. His hearing will start at 4pm and will last 45 minutes, and a vote will be taken soon afterwards.