The Maltese EU administrator being investigated over an anti-Semitic assault said he had been drinking for five hours before the incident but insisted it was not motivated by anti-Jewish sentiments.

“I was out celebrating 10 years working with the European Commission and had been drinking mojitos from 7pm till about midnight when all this happened,” Stefan Grech said, adding he was not drunk but was not “100 per cent” fit either.

He is being investigated by Belgian police after allegedly striking an Italian woman on the head with a licence plate commemorating Italian wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.

The woman is also claiming Mr Grech called her “a dirty Jew” and later said that “[Adolf] Hitler should have finished off the Jews”.

Mr Grech yesterday admitted he had “tapped” the woman on the head with the steel plate after a heated argument but insisted the incident was not motivated by any anti-Semitic sentiments. 

“I am not a racist. I have Jewish and black friends and have nothing against them,” he said, though added he held firm views on the situation in Palestine.

Mr Grech is also the subject of an internal inquiry by the Commission. In 2002, Mr Grech was found guilty of owning and distributing child pornography. He was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.