Karmenu Vella is a Maltese politician and the country's nominee to be European commissioner, to be responsible for environment, maritime and fisheries. He has been a member of the Maltese parliament since , but that hasn't prevented him from also holding a variety of external business roles at the same time including within the gambling industry.
CEO now argues that these recent outside interests make him unsuitable to be a commissioner. According to his own parliamentary website , in Karmenu Vella was appointed as executive chairman of Corinthia Hotels International. In he served as executive chairman of the Mediterranean Construction Co. Ltd and he was also a founding chairman of the Maltese Turkish Business Council. Before entering politics, Vella was a bank director and an architect and engineer.
He has an extensive property portfolio and large bank assets, boosted by recent property sales. He also joined Betfair International Plc on 27 January Betfair is apparently the world largest internet betting exchange and while it started life as a UK business, its first overseas licence was granted in Malta.
OTG encompasses a number of subsidiaries and associate outbound travel companies, is present in eight countries, and specialises in cruise trips and outbound travel to Malta and elsewhere. Vella left the OTG on 13 March which was the same date that he was appointed as… Maltese minister for tourism, a role that he had previously held in He left his Betfair roles on 13 April Tourism accounts for 14 per cent of Malta's GDP and perhaps as many as 30 per cent of the Maltese population is directly employed in this sector.
Meanwhile, gaming is said to account for 10 per cent of Malta's GDP. In CEO's view, it is pretty shocking that an MP was able to maintain such outside interests whilst apparently not breaking any rules; even more shocking when this MP was then appointed as minister for tourism. Vella has told CEO that he had no links with either Betfair or the Orange Travel Group during his time as minister for tourism in and he has denied any conflicts of interest saying:.
