Updated: PL to fight waiting lists in the EP

(Adds Resources Ministry's reaction)

Labour MEPs will be insisting on the establishment of time frames for operations when patient mobility is debated in the European Parliament, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said this morning,

Addressing supporters at the City Theatre in Valletta, Dr Muscat said that if a state would be unable to operate within the time frame that would be established, patients would have the option to have their operation at a private hospital or abroad.

Although this would cost money, waiting could cost lives, he said.

Dr Muscat was speaking following the presentation of the party’s 12 candidates for the June MEP elections to the public. The line up was described by Dr Muscat and senior MP George Vella as impressive and exceptional.

On the water and electricity rate, Dr Muscat said that the rates had been increased to an equivalent of a 185 percent surcharge because the government had spent everything before the last election. Such a steep increase, he said, came when the surcharge should have been 35 percent. The PL, Dr Muscat said, would be challenging the new rates in Parliament and in other institutions.

On the proposed St John’s CoCathedral museum extension, Dr Muscat, who yesterday presented a motion in Parliament on the matter, said that Labour wanted in museum but it was not necessary to spend so much money when some of the country’s best buildings could be restored with less.

Dr Muscat also promised action on the VAT the government has been charging on the vehicle registration tax.

He criticised the government on the recent revision of the waste management strategy saying that while before the election the government wanted one mega recycling plant, it was now saying that two were needed.

But in a reaction in the afternoon, the Resources Ministry said that the government had made it clear - from the very beginning, that the Sant’Antnin plant had to take 71,000 tonnes of waste. This amounted to around a third of all the waste generated in Malta each year.

As Sant’Antnin was only treating a third of the waste in Malta, it was only logical that the government had other facilities to treat the remainder of the waste.

Dr Muscat said this morning that by identifying the areas for the two new plants, the government had shown that it had not learned anything from the Sant’Antnin saga, during which it had antagonised a whole locality.

The proposed plant in Gozo, Dr Muscat said, was planned between the only two localities with an MLP majority - Sannat and Xewkija.

The ministry said that the document it had presented was the basis of a consulation process which was to last eight weeks. It invited everyone, including the opposition, to submit their opinions and propose alternatives.

Dr Muscat said that it was not just the PL which did not believe Dr Gonzi. The EU had also stopped believing him.

For while the government’s stability programme presented last month projected an economic growth of 2.2 percent for 2009 and 2.5 percent for in 2010, the European Commission said this was more likely to be 0.7 percent in 2009 and 1.3 per cent in 2010.

It also did not agree with the government’s deficit figures. While the government said that the deficit in 2009 would be 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product, and 0.3 percent in 2010, the Commission said it would more likely be 2.6 percent in 2009 and 2.5 percent in 2010.