The Labour MEPs' business interests have finally emerged as they disclosed all the details of their professional connections.
The Times had reported that they had initially decided to withhold the full details in the financial declaration they made to the European Parliament following their election last June.
According to EP rules, all elected MEPs are obliged to make a "detailed" financial declaration upon their election to the Brussels chamber and to amend it accordingly every year. This declaration is then made public on the EP website.
While the two Nationalist MEPs David Casa and Simon Busuttil gave the full details of their potential conflicts of interest, the three Labour MEPs had limited the details in their individual declarations and failed to reveal the names of companies and their professional activities.
Following queries made by The Sunday Times, the three Labour representatives in the EP have now decided to make their full details available and informed the EP. They said they had not wanted to conceal their potential conflicts of interest but just thought the declarations they had made were sufficient.
Former Labour minister John Attard Montalto, who had originally only declared "law" as his professional activity and just inserted this word to explain his remunerated functions and activities in his formal declaration, revealed he was a consultant to major property developer Charles Polidano, known as ic-Caqnu.
He is also a senior partner in a legal firm Sciriha, Attard Montalto and Galea Ltd. Among his main corporate clients, the flamboyant MEP mentioned Oiltanking Malta Ltd, GWU Holdings Ltd, World Marketing Ltd and Film Studios Ltd. He also has various investments in immovable properties in Malta and shares in HSBC, Bank of Valletta, SV Tumas Holdings Malta, Federated Mills Ltd and Guido Reni Ltd, which is in liquidation.
Dr Attard Montalto explained that the lack of details in his original declaration was due to a "misunderstanding".
Meanwhile, MEP Louis Grech said he had already given the full details of the companies he had an interest in when he was first elected in 2004.
While in 2004 Mr Grech had given the full details of his connection with 14 private companies as shareholder or director, this time he only chose to declare he is a director and shareholder "in a number of limited liability companies registered in Malta" and that he received management fees from "a limited liability company".
He told The Sunday Times he was involved in only three companies, since in the past years he decided to concentrate more on politics and his job in Brussels.
Mr Grech said he was currently a shareholder of 1999 Ltd, a family business from which he also received management fees. He is also a shareholder in FEV Electronics Ltd and Aquaculture Developments Ltd.
Labour's new MEP Edward Scicluna revealed that during the past three years, before becoming a Labour candidate, he was awarded 10 different consultancies by government or its entities.
"The information you are requesting is contained in my CV, which was submitted together with my financial declaration during my very first week in Brussels," he told The Sunday Times.
Despite being a full-time politician in Brussels, he still holds his post as professor at the University of Malta, is chairman of HSBC Malta Funds and Structured Funds SICAVs, and of the Cottonera Waterfront Group, the company which manages the Cottonera yacht marina. Prof. Scicluna is also a non-executive director of San Antonio Hotel and Spa.
The former chairman of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development also said he managed his own economics consultancy called Applied Economics.
As from the beginning of this legislature, Maltese MEPs receive an annual pre-tax salary of €92,000 and more than €300,000 in allowances annually to pay for their staff, offices and travel expenses.