Brussels to take legal action if Marsa shutdown does not take place by 2013

The European Commission has postponed a decision to take Malta to the European Court of Justice, six months after sending a reasoned opinion on the operation of the Marsa power station, to assess the latest complementary information it received from the Maltese Government in January 2013.

A government source privy to EU policy affairs had told MaltaToday in January that Brussels was mulling court action, six months after a reasoned opinion to Malta calling on the government to comply on industrial emissions.

The case relates to the government's delay in closing down the Marsa power plant, which is still being operated because it still provides a portion of Malta's energy demands.

"The Commission is aware that the Marsa power plant produces some 45% of Malta's electricity and takes note of the measures taken by Malta to build the necessary replacement sources of power generation," spokesperson Joe Hennon said for the European environment commission.

"In this regard, the Commission understands that a new generating plant at Delimara has in the meantime been put into commercial operation and this has allowed Malta to shut down two combustion plants out of the four units at the Marsa Power Station covered by the limited lifetime derogation of 20,000 operational hours under the EU's Large Combustion Plant Directive.

"The Commission was further informed that the completion of the ongoing Malta-Sicily electricity interconnector project will allow Malta to take the two remaining Marsa combustion plants completely out of service."

Hennon said that according to the information received, the completion of the interconnector and the subsequent shutdown of the two remaining plants is expected by the end of 2013.

"The Commission will continue to closely monitor progress in this case and will not hesitate to take further legal action if further delays in the implementation of the programme of works in relation to the taking out of service of the plants concerned are encountered," Hennon said.

Back in June 2012, the Commission said it was concerned that Malta had not yet closed the power station, issuing a reasoned opinion to the government - the second step in an infringement notice issued by Brussels.

Under the Large Combustion Plants Directive, Marsa's four combustion plants were not supposed to exceed a 20,000-hour limit between 2008 and 2015, but all four plants went over that ceiling in 2011. The plant will have to be decommissioned by not later than 2015 - in the meantime, the government pays a daily fine for operating the power station, due to its emissions.

Six months ago in June, the EC claimed that Malta was "failing to protect its citizens from pollution emitted by the Marsa power station".

The Marsa power plant was brought back into operation in 2012 due to a delay in bringing the Delimara plant online, in violation of the Large Combustion Plants Directive, the scope of which is to protect human health by limiting harmful emissions.

The government initially failed to reply to a letter of formal notice sent on 28 February 2012 within the stipulated two-month period. The formal notice is the first stage in a process that may lead to the Commission pursuing litigation.