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€0.90 WEDNESDAY EDITION WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT Editorial - PAGE 11 WEDNESDAY • 15 January 2014 • issue 347 • published every wednesday and sunday Pardon in the dark George Farrugia was granted presidential pardon after first availing himself of right of silence during 48-hour detention, when Lawrence Gonzi first mooted possibility of pardon for anyone offering information on Enemalta bribery MIRIAM DALLI OIL trader George Farrugia learnt that he could be pardoned for the bribery of Enemalta officials on fuel contracts, a day after prime minister Lawrence Gonzi first pronounced himself on granting a presidential pardon for whoever could give police information on the Enemalta oil scandal. It is unclear whether Farrugia availed himself of the right to stay silent during a 48-hour arrest in order to be eligible for a presidential pardon. Yesterday, MaltaToday asked Lawrence Gonzi whether his announcement that he would recommend a pardon for anyone to shed light on the Enemalta oil scandal, had been premature and served only to placate public opinion in the middle of the March 2013 general elections. In his reply, Gonzi simply said he was acting on a recommendation by then Police Commissioner John Rizzo. "I am sure you will appreciate that a recommendation by the chief investigating officer (who was the Commissioner of Police) to grant the presidential proclamation was in itself sufficient reason especially in view of the fact that he was called to justify this request to the Cabinet of Ministers," Gonzi told MaltaToday. CONTINUES ON PAGE 2 George Farrugia Banks must reduce high borrowing rates – MP MATTHEW VELLA 'Anti-social, shocking, crazy and ridiculous' MEPs will give Malta a hard time today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in a debate on the Individual Investor Programme LABOUR MP Silvio Schembri MANFRED Weber, the vice-chair- spread between deposits and lending rates, which is always increasing. From my own analysis, it looks like this is true – in Malta, interest rates for credit stayed high com- pared to other rates offered in the rest of the EU, while deposit rates stay low." CONTINUES ON PAGE 5 man of the European People's Party group, said Schengen area passports should not be sold and that the European Commission had to check whether Malta's IIP was compatible with the Schengen Agreement. "Such schemes should not be made without the consultation of the other Schengen member states and the European Commission. Schengen is a European project that is based on mutual trust and should not be undermined by steps like this. This kind of disrespect of the socialist government in Malta is inacceptable." Malta's controversial citizenship sale, which will sell passports for €650,000 to non-EU nationals, will be discussed in the European Parliament today Wednesday. The mood across several political groups, from communists to socialists, as well as conservatives and liberals, appears to be geared against the Individual Investor Programme. CONTINUES ON PAGE 6 Newspaper post says Maltese commercial banks are reaping considerable profits year in, year out, without reducing lending interest rates to help small and medium-sized businesses get any credit. "Maltese banks have retained higher interest rates than the average of their counterparts in the rest of the eurozone," Schembri, the chairman of the economic and monetary affairs committee in parliament, told MaltaToday yesterday. Schembri's committee will today host Central Bank governor Josef Bonnici to expand on comments he gave to the Institute of Financial Services' annual dinner, in which he called on commercial banks to facilitate access to credit for businesses. "I have asked the governor to give a presentation on the huge Lawrence Gonzi