Miriam Dalli has dismissed as “speculation” suggestions that she is being considered as Malta’s nominee for European Commissioner but has hit back at critics who said she would not survive a grilling by MEPs.

Labour Party insiders have said the energy minister is “best placed” to replace Chris Fearne, who earlier this month withdrew his nomination in the wake of the hospitals inquiry fallout.

But Dalli insisted she has “not even thought about it” and that her focus remains on her ministerial role and helping the party ahead of the June 8 elections.

Reports have been swirling in Labour circles that her background as an MEP would put her in pole position for the Brussels post. 

However, shadow foreign affairs minister Beppe Fenech Adami said Dalli would not survive a grilling from MEPs because of the Electrogas scandal. 

“Just like Chris Fearne cannot be European Commissioner because he financed Vitals, Miriam Dalli cannot be [Commissioner] after financing Electrogas,” Fenech Adami wrote on Facebook. 

His comments were echoed by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi. 

When asked to clarify, Fenech Adami said that Dalli is the minister responsible in a government that is giving money to Electrogas, a company mired in scandal. 

From 2013-2014, Dalli also worked as a communications and stakeholder management consultant to Konrad Mizzi, who was energy minister at the time.

There is an ongoing magisterial inquiry into the government power station concession given to Electrogas shortly after the Labour Party came to power in 2013.

“I assure you there is absolutely nothing that can humiliate me,” Dalli said when questioned by Times of Malta. 

“No one can say anything about my integrity, least of all Beppe Fenech Adami or Jason Azzopardi,” she said. 

When Fenech Adami was mentioned in an investigation on money laundering and drug trafficking, his name disappeared from files and the investigation closed, Dalli said. On Azzopardi, Dalli said the national auditor criticised him twice over a Fekruna Bay expropriation deal and a deal related to the Qormi Lowenbrau brewery site.

Fearne resigned as deputy prime minister and minister days after prosecutors filed fraud charges against him related to the deal to privatise three state hospitals. 

While he withdrew as Malta’s nominee to the next EU Commission, he will stay on as deputy leader of Labour and maintains his innocence.