Parliament to debate Electrogas contracts on Thursday

Parliament will on Thursday debate the Electrogas contracts that have just been published, after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat dismissed the Opposition’s calls for it to be postponed.

Muscat had proposed that the Opposition scrap its parliamentary motion that called on the government to publish its contracts with Electrogas and that a separate debate on the newly-published contracts be held next week, but the Opposition insisted that the debate be held on its original motion.

The Opposition in 2015 presented a parliamentary motion that called on the government to publish its contracts signed with Electrogas, the consortium tasked with the building of the new gas-fired power plant in Delimara and the supply of power to Enemalta for a period of 18 years

The government finally published the contracts today, two days before the parliamentary debate was scheduled.

PN deputy leader Mario de Marco urged the Prime Minister to postpone the debate to a future date, so as to give the Opposition time to read through the heavily redacated contracts.

“The Opposition had not been informed that the contracts were going to be published 24 hours before the parliamentary debate,” he said. “We want an intelligent and informed debate, and not a superficial one. These contracts are very long and technical, so how can we be expected to study them properly in time for a debate on Thursday morning?”

However, Muscat insisted that the government was already being lenient in allowing the motion to be debated at all, arguing that the publication of the contracts has rendered it invalid.

He proposed that the Opposition drop its motion and that the two parties agree on a date on which to hold a debate on the contracts, but without a vote at the end of the session.

However, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil rejected the offer, arguing that the motion included 12 requests, of which only two referred to the publication of the contracts.

“We filed the motion two whole years ago, and the government now wants us to study the contracts in 24 hours. Isn’t this supposed to be a government that is willing to offer us a hand of cooperation?”