Tonio Borg nomination: ‘Big gamble for country’ – Debono

Nationalist MP Franco Debono this evening is expected to raise questions over Tonio Borg's nomination as European Commissioner, to insist that this will be "a big gamble for the country".

Speaking to MaltaToday, Debono said Borg's past carried enough "baggage" that questioned his nomination. "It's enough to look at how he had led home affairs when he was responsible for this portfolio," he said.

Today, Borg met with European Commission president José Barroso. Borg has been named as the Commissioner-designate to fill the vacancy in the health and consumer protection portfolio.

Debono also said that he would be asking parliament to "urgently" discuss the damage suffered by the Delimara power station and the BWSC contract. He said that even the Auditor General, in his report, had conceded the plant was a "prototype". 

"We cannot have a country without electricity and we cannot have our country resting on the Marsa power station - a plant which going by the PN's electoral manifesto should have been closed 15 years ago," Debono insisted.

He said that he will be invoking Standing Order 13 - the same standing order used by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat last week to have the St Philip's Hopsital contract discussed. No vote was taken then and Debono said he won't be asking for votes to be taken on the power station either.

Asked whether he'll be tabling a motion, Debono said there was no need: "There are already two motions relating to the issue which I had presented but which government has so far refused to discuss."

Debono was referring to the no-confidence motion presented against Transport Minister Austin Gatt and another motion on how the Birzebbugia and the Marsaxlokk area were affected by the power station in Delimara.