Caruana Galizias call on EU presidency to deny Malta ‘corrupt’ pipeline funds

The family of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has penned a letter to the Slovenian presidency of the EU, calling for a stop to European funds that could finance Malta’s gas pipeline project.

The sons and husband of Caruana Galizia, assassinated in October 2017 by a car bomb, said the public funds for the €400 million Melite hydrogen-ready pipeline between Malta and Sicily, would also be flowing “to the owners of a corrupt project” – the operators and gas suppliers of the Delimara plant, Electrogas.

They said Malta’s implementation of a gas pipeline would also trigger a €100 million pay-out to Electrogas.

Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech, the Tumas magnate, is charged with having masterminded the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

Malta recently obtained a derogation in 2020 to have its gas pipeline, recently refused funds from the Connecting Europe Facility for the pipeline’s dependence on fossil fuel, to be reconsidered for funding by converting it into a hydrogen-ready pipeline.

“We are informed that this derogation is supported by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council. If this exemption from new rules aimed at phasing out EU subsidies for fossil fuel projects stands, the €400m Melita pipeline project to transport gas from Gela in Sicily to the Electrogas power station in Delimara, Malta, could be built using EU funds,” the Caruana Galizias said in their 3 December letter.

Caruana Galizia had identified a secret company used by Fenech, 17 Black, revealed after her death to have been an offshore company to funnel millions of euros into secret offshore companies set up in Panama and owned by the former prime minister’s right-hand man, Keith Schembri.

A public inquiry into the circumstances of Caruana Galizia’s assassination said the journalist knew that Electrogas was on the verge of bankruptcy and that it was probable that if Fenech was revealed with certainty as the owner of 17 Black, the government would have been unable to provide a surety for Electrogas.

“In summary: Malta’s agreements with Electrogas were procured by a corruption scheme. The extended surety to Electrogas, saving it from bankruptcy, was procured by murder,” the family said.

“By this principle, we have called on the Maltese government to rescind all agreements with Electrogas, hold its shareholders liable for costs and put the country on a path away from fossil fuels. Until it does so, every time Daphne’s mother turns on a light in Malta, she is funding the person accused of her own daughter’s murder.”

Electrogas’s gas power plant is the sole user of gas imported through this planned pipeline as things stand in Malta. According to the terms of Malta’s 2017 conversion term agreement with Electrogas – namely  a schedule on compensation amounts and GSA exit price – the pipeline will trigger a huge cash payout of over €100 million to the shareholders.

“Sending a message that corruption is rewarded will make our situation many times worse than it already is, and for no public benefit whatsoever – not that any would justify rewarding someone accused of murder, as well as rewarding the corporations that benefited from murder and corruption,” the Caruana Galizias said.

“We call on you to do the right thing. Do not reward murder. Do not reward corruption. Do not support the derogation for the Melita pipeline. Instead, honour Daphne for her sacrifice, and honour EU values of justice and freedom from corruption, by supporting its removal.”