Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, at a meeting with the Malta government in Valletta | Domenic Aquilina/EPA Martin Schulz slammed for Malta anti-money laundering comments Maltese presidency tasked with updating EU money laundering rules.

Martin Schulz was accused Thursday of defending a "corrupt elite" in Malta by an opposition MEP.

The outgoing European Parliament president, who is in Malta to visit government ministers, said he was not concerned about the Maltese government's ability to finalize new anti-money laundering rules drawn up by the European Commission in response to the Panama Papers scandal earlier this year.

But David Casa, an MEP from the opposition Nationalist Party, disagreed, saying: "To suggest that [the Maltese government] can be trusted to drive anti-money laundering legislation is an insult to the Maltese and European people."

In the Panama Papers, it was revealed that Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi as well as Keith Schembri, chief of staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, had opened offshore trusts in New Zealand and companies in Panama after the Labour Party won national elections in 2013.

Opposition politicians, including Casa, accuse Mizzi and Schembri of using the offshore trusts to hide kickbacks from privatization contracts involving hospitals and power stations. Mizzi claims that the trusts are for his family's money and future earnings.

In April, the government asked an external auditor to check Mizzi's offshore accounts but it has not yet published the conclusions.

Earlier this week, Pierre Moscovici, European commissioner in charge of taxation, told the Parliament's Panama Papers inquiry committee that the Commission would not "get involved in member states' governance."

"This is just a political barb by an opposition which detests the fact that Malta is being praised for its preparedness to take over the EU presidency [in the first half of 2017] under a Labour administration," said Kurt Farrugia, a spokesman for the prime minister.

A delegation of MEPs will visit the EU's smallest member state to investigate the country's fight against money-laundering in February or March, which was welcomed last week by the Green-aligned Alternattiva Demokratika party.

"The Maltese people deserve full transparency with regards to the ethical behavior — or the lack of it — of their representatives," said its chairman, Arnold Cassola, in a statement.

Schulz's office did not respond to a request for comment.