Brussels returns PBO e-mail complaint to sender

An attempt by Labour MEP Glenn Bedingfield to draw the European Commission into the fray over the Paul Borg Oliver e-mail incident drew a blank after he was told the issue should be referred to the Maltese authorities.

Labour's most recently elected MEP, who assumed the seat in Brussels vacated by PL leader Joseph Muscat last year, presented a parliamentary question to the Commission asking for its opinion on whether the contents of the Nationalist Party general secretary's e-mail breached individuals' rights to privacy.

In the e-mail sent last November, Dr Borg Olivier had asked government ministers to send the Nationalist Party information about citizens who filed complaints with their ministries. Details of it leaked after the general secretary mistakenly sent the message to his counterpart in the Labour Party, Jason Micallef, instead of Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi.

The Labour Party subsequently accused the PN and the government of concocting a 'web of espionage' to share sensitive customer care data.

However, the Commission steered clear of the issue. In a two-line reply, EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the issue was not within EU competence but for the Maltese Data Protection Commissioner, who "is carrying out an investigation on this matter".

Following the controversy which erupted at the end of last year, amid accusations that the two big parties were holding confidential data on voters without their consent, both the PN and the PL asked the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate. The new Data Protection Commissioner, Joe Ebejer, has yet to publish a report on the conclusions of his inquiry.