Prime Minister to announce new President next month

The successor to President of the Republic George Abela will be announced next month, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

He however refused to divulge any information on whom the new President can be, limiting himself to reiterate he had a short list which he was studying.

The confirmation comes amid speculation that the Prime Minister is planning a Cabinet reshuffle in the coming weeks.

Following a visit to Attard & Co's premises in Marsa, journalists also pressed Muscat on whether he stood by his description of the Delimara power station as "a cancer factory" despite an air quality report that found no increase in particulate matter detected from the use of heavy fuel oil.

Refusing to withdraw his description - one of the strongest and popular sound bites from the 2013 electoral campaign - Muscat said the use of the BWSC plant was made possible thanks to changes in the legal notice.

"The previous administration amended the legal notice to increase the thresholds, accommodating the BWSC plant. There's no question that gas is the cleanest type of fuel that can be used," he said.

He said that one "should ask residents of Marsaxlokk what they think on the use of HFO".

The baseline analysis of all data from 2009 to 2013 by the Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC), of the University of the West of England, Bristol has revealed no evidence to suggest that Delimara was contributing to elevated concentrations of particulate matter at Birzebbuga or Marsaxlokk due to HFO.

AQMRC was appointed by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) and a monitoring committee composed of local council represenattives, to assess the impact of using HFO at Delimara Power Station.

The reports did not indicate Delimara had contributed to any exceedances of the EU-limited values for PM10 or PM2.5 between December and June 2013 at any sites. The recorded exceedances of the daily mean limit value for PM10 were attributed to regional sources, sometimes specifically to Saharan dust events, or more localised events associated with wind directions other than from the direction of the Delimara power station.

The Prime Minister however insisted that if Malta had stricter laws than the EU's, then these standards should not have been changed.

"These are matters that worry the public and what we are giving them is a better standard of emissions," he said, adding the residents themselves wanted the removal of the chimney.

Commenting on Prime Minister Muscat's statement on the report on the BWSC plant in M'Xlokk, Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson, Prof. Arnold Cassola, said: "The Prime Minister has stated that 'the previous administration amended the legal notice to increase the thresholds, accommodating the BWSC plant. There's no question that gas is the cleanest type of fuel that can be used.' Muscat also added that one 'should ask residents of Marsaxlokk what they think on the use of Heavy Fuel Oil'."

Carmel Cacopardo, AD Deputy Chairman added that the fact that the Social Impact Assessment forming part of the EIA process has identified that 91% of the residents to Marsaxlokk as opposing the gas storage facility on a ship moored in Marsaxlokk harbour (as proposed by Enemalta) begs the question as to whether Joseph Muscat will take heed of what the residents are stating.