Updated | PN accused of creating obstacles as it calls on EU to investigate ElectroGas guarantee

PN calls on European Commission to investigate ElectroGas guarantee • Video by Ray Attard

The Nationalist Party has called on the European Commission to investigate a €360 million state guarantee that the government issued on a €450 million bridge loan to ElectroGas that the consortium requires to construct a LNG power station at Delimara.

Addressing a press conference, shadow foreign minister Roberta Metsola questioned whether the guarantee constitutes illegal state aid and whether the other bidders for the power station project were informed of the possibility of such a guarantee.

She said that the EC should also investigate whether the government is contractually obliging Malta into purchasing electricity from Electrogas when it could acquire it for a cheaper price from the interconnector.

Metsola – also a Nationalsit MEP - called on the government to immediately publish all the conditions of the guarantee, all the contracts it has signed with Electrogas, and all communication between the government and the EC regarding the two guarantees.
"If [energy minister] Konrad Mizzi is so capable of signing great contracts, then he should have no problem in publishing them,” she said.

The government has described the guarantee as an interim measure while it awaits clearance from the European Commission over the Security of Supply Agreement (SSA) it has entered into with ElectroGas. Mizzi has said that the government is confident that the SSA satisfies EU requirements and does not constitute incompatible state aid.

However, Metsola questioned what the situation will look like if the EC doesn’t give its clearance and criticised the government for “acting on a hunch that it is acting in accordance to EU rules”.

She recounted how finance minister Edward Scicluna had refused to publish the conditions of a now-defunct €88 million state guarantee to cover an ElectroGas loan from Bank of Valletta.

“Scicluna had said back then that publishing it would lead to economic turmoil,” Metsola said. “I suppose that this new guarantee would lead to a political earthquake.”

Question marks over necessity of power station

Shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli questioned whether the government requires the gas power station to reduce electricity bills, as Labour had claimed prior to the election.

“Electricity tariffs have only gone down thanks to cheaper power from BWSC power station and the interconnector,” she claimed.

Portelli said that the guarantee –along with the departure of former lead partner Gasol plc from Electrogas – has shed doubt over the financial soundness of the consortium. 

‘PN trying to create obstacles with European Commission’ – PL

In a reaction, Labour accused the PN of trying to create obstacles for the government by roping in the European Commission.

“This is the PN’s fifth attempt to stop the power station project,” the PL said in a statement. “It had sent questions to the European Commission about the project’s competition process, it claimed that the government wasn’t acting in line with an environment impact assessment, it claimed that the government was breaking the SEVESO directive, and [Metsola] presented a petition against the berthing of a gas tanker in Marsaxlokk bay.

“In all five cases, the Opposition was proven wrong.”