Foreign experts have told the government that an offshore wind farm at Sikka L-Bajda off Mellieħa was not viable, Alternattiva Demokratika said yesterday.
The party has demanded that the German experts' conclusions be published, claiming it has information that the offshore project's viability has been ruled out.
"Let the government prove us wrong... which I hope we are, for the country's sake. Can we see the experts' results?" party chairman Arnold Cassola asked.
The experts, he said, were consulted by the government after the €130 million project was announced in the last budget.
When pressed, he insisted that his sources were reliable.
Asked to confirm the claim, the resources ministry said: "We have no such information".
However, the ministry's spokeman would not reveal the experts' conclusions when asked for them, saying they would be made public "at the opportune moment".
He pointed out that even though no announcements had been made so far, the preparatory work was ongoing and has included the submission of an application to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority for a wind monitoring mast at Aħrax Point to complement the various studies and reports already in hand.
There is a lot riding on the wind farm in terms of Malta's strategy to come in line with the EU's energy target, which is to generate at least 10 per cent of its energy from renewable energy resources by 2020. It is estimated that the farm would provide around four per cent of Malta's energy requirements.
The application with the planning authority, filed two months ago, is for a temporary 80-metre-long wind mast to be installed at Aħrax Point in Mellieħa (the closest point to the offshore reef) to monitor wind in the area.
Prof. Cassola said he, together with AD's other MEP candidate Yvonne Ebejer Arqueros, would work towards speeding up the rate at which Malta was tapping into alternative energy sources.
The government's schemes for the purchase of solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels were good, he said. However, while about 4,600 families benefited from them, they did not reach out to enough people if Malta was to reach the EU targets.
Prof. Cassola and Ms Ebejer Arqueros also pledged to work towards supporting family values.
She said she would support the adoption of the European Commission's proposal to increase maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks. This has been opposed by the government and trade unions due to the current economic situation.
Prof. Cassola added that under Maltese law there was a level of discrimination against fathers. Unmarried fathers of children born from non-EU resident mothers had to pay about €3,000 for their baby's delivery at the state hospital. This was discriminatory and an AD MEP would work towards eliminating such discrimination, he said.