Updated on September 13 am with PL statement
The EPP Group in the European Parliament has decided to vote against the candidature of former minister Leo Brincat to the European Court of Auditors.
The group, of which the PN forms part, is the biggest in the EP but does not have a majority.
The European Parliament, meeting in plenary session, will take a secret vote tomorrow.
"The EPP Group thinks that the Maltese government has a heavy baggage and the least it could have done is to nominate an independent and competent candidate, not a former minister," the group said in a statement.
"The fact that the Maltese government chose to sell Maltese / EU citizenship, in a non-transparent way, raises big question marks. The way this government handled the Panama Papers scandal continues to cement our strong-held beliefs that this government is on the wrong track. These two episodes are doing untold damage to Malta’s reputation and we cannot in our wildest dreams accept Mr Brincat as member of the European Court of Auditors, out of all institutions, as he was until recently part and parcel of this government.
"For the sake of Malta’s interests we implore Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to see sense and nominate an independent and competent candidate," the group said.
Mr Brincat's nomination was approved by the slimmest of margins by the EP's Budgetary Committee last week but the vote in a plenary sitting is needed before the appointment becomes official.
Mr Brincat was the government's second nomination for the Court of Auditors. The Budgetary Committee had rejected the nomination of former Labour deputy leader Toni Abela.
BUSUTTIL: THIS IS ABOUT MUSCAT, NOT LEO BRINCAT'S COMPETENCE
In a reaction, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said at a PN activity that tomorrow's vote in the European Parliament would not be about Mr Brincat's competence, but about Joseph Muscat and about whether the prime minister of an EU country should tolerate in his Cabinet a minister who had set up secret companies in Panama.
Furthermore, people of principle could not vote in favour of whoever had backed Konrad Mizzi, as Mr Brincat had done in Parliament.
Dr Busuttil said the Muscat government was now a hostage to its own dirt, as the questioning of Mr Brincat by the Budgetary Committee last week showed.
He also pointed out that eight months ago, the prime minister had promised an audit of the secret companies set up by his chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Mizzi. Yet no audit report had been published.
By defending Mizzi and Schembri, Dr Muscat had become an accomplice and had lost the moral authority to lead the country, Dr Busuttil said.
PL: A reaction of someone who is under pressure
In a statement this morning, the PL said Dr Busuttil's reaction was one of someone who was under pressure.
The people, the party said, were constantly seeing the difference between those who wanted more division because of the uncertainty and pressure they were facing and those who worked in the interest of the country by voting in favour of similar nominations for the sake of Malta in the past.