Green MEP slams surcharge proposal

The MLP’s proposal to halve the electricity surcharge contradicts the position of the Socialist Group at the European Parliament on the renewable energy directive, currently being discussed at the EP, the vice-president of the Greens in the EP, Claude Turmes, said today.

British socialist MEP Eluned Morgan is proposing a model of gradual price increase, he explained. In Amendment 23 of the EP report for the third package on the electricity market, which will be voted on in May, the rapporteur for the internal market directive is against flat-rate, cheap energy because it gives “the wrong signal”.

Speaking at the Alternattiva Demokratika headquarters, Mr Turmes, an energy expert and also rapporteur on the renewable energy directive, described the proposal as an “easy and populist way out,” he said.

The major political challenge for the next Maltese government was to rapidly design a strategy on how Malta could link to Italy and Europe for an electricity interconnection, Mr Turmes said.