Muscat: Energy contracts to be published in coming days

The government will be publishing all the contracts relating to the gas-fired power plant in the coming days, making the current leadership the first to have ever published all its major contracts, according to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Speaking at a political activity in Marsascala, Muscat expressed his satisfaction at the fact that the European Commission had found no problems with any of the contracts and had given the project the green light.

“We faced opposition when lowering tariffs and shifting the country to gas. When we say this to people abroad, they cannot understand it,” he said, adding that “the same people who only a few months-ago were clamping down on the activities of Apple and Google, have scrutinized the contracts for over two years and told us that nothing needs to be changed.”

Furthermore, Muscat said that the government was in advanced stages of its plan to have a gas pipeline between Malta and Italy. “In a few years-time the tanker will be removed and we will have a pipeline. We are not thinking only about today, but about tomorrow and the day after that.”

During his speech, the Prime minister lambasted the leader of the opposition for his criticism of the European Commission in parliament this week, stressing that he knows “this is not the genuine sentiment of true Nationalists and the general population.”

“Attack me or the government if you must, we can take it. But don’t go attacking the country’s guests; people who we need to work with,” he said, referring to Opposition leader Simon Busuttil's criticism of the European Commission who he claimed had ignored the anger of the Maltese at the revelations of the Panama Papers. 

By doing so, he said, the leader of the opposition was being short-sighted because, “while politician’s come and go, the institutions the country must work with remain.” Last week, the Nationalist party "expressed its disappointment" at the the Commission's decision to approve the 18-year security of supply agreement with Electrogas.

On the government's performance, Muscat once again stressed that his government is determined to bring positive change to people’s lives and that, through the strength of its ideas and vision, the country was constantly improving.

“Irrespective of how people vote, there is a real sense of pride in the country. People feel that the country is genuinely moving forward and that it is living up to its potential. Just because we are a small country doesn’t mean that our ideas are small. I have learnt over the past four years, that the strength of an idea is bigger than the size of the country,” he said.

Through the changes brought on by the government, it had succeeded in, solving the problem with out-of-stock medicines, reducing people’s bills, giving rights to divorcees and same-sex couples and helping people move out of poverty and to aspire to a better future, he said.

Turning to the reform of the law governing shops’ opening hours which was announced this week, he said that the previous system was so complex and bureaucratic that it did not make sense and that the system was creating discrepancies that were in turn resulting in small businesses getting “eaten up” by bigger players.

“We are no longer living in a time where the minister should have to sign-off on a form for a grocer to open on Sunday. How is it possible there nobody ever thought to modernise these systems,” said Muscat, arguing that shopkeepers should be able to decide for themselves when to open and that government should let the “market adjust itself.”

The Prime Minister also touched upon changes being made to alcohol driving-limits and argued that the country must now ensure that alternative transportation is readily accessible and affordable.

He said that he had always been annoyed at the fact that people could drink as much as they like before driving home, and that breathalyser tests were not a norm in the country.

“We could not have kept going in this way, reading about people dying in the papers. We owe it to the victims of traffic accidents of the past years.”