Vince Farrugia, Nationalist MEP candidate and director general of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, will retain his position at the chamber but will stop commenting about "controversial" and "non-technical" matters on its behalf until June's European Parliament elections.

Since Mr Farrugia has agreed to associate himself with a political party, questions have arisen over a possible conflict of interest, because his role as GRTU spokesman often requires him to be critical of the government. Reacting to various media reports, the GRTU said that from now on, its president Paul Abela would be making all public comments. It added, however, that Mr Farrugia will continue to fulfil his duties when it came to representation, leadership and technical expertise, where his experience and capabilities were invaluable.

The GRTU denied that some of its members had threatened to withdraw their membership because of Mr Farrugia's decision, as was reported on It-Torċa on Sunday. It described the article in question as an invention.

It added that the staff of the director general's office had been trained to ensure the activity at the GRTU was not affected when Mr Farrugia needed to be away for his campaign duties.

The GRTU said Mr Farrugia was an employee and like every other EU citizen, he had a right to contest the EP elections. Speaking to The Times recently, Mr Farrugia had said now that he had become an MEP candidate he would lower his profile within the GRTU but would not relinquish his post.

"I cannot abandon the GRTU members. I will still have a low-profile technical role to play in assisting the GRTU and its members, at least throughout the campaign," Mr Farrugia had said.

However, he would not say whether he would resign the post if elected. That would be the question to ask after June, he had said.