Labour will explain how, when and by how much it would reduce electricity rates during the first week of the electoral campaign, party leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

The PL’s energy policy will flesh out the much-mentioned promise to lower utility tariffs if elected, the Opposition leader said.

He made the announcement at the end of a tour of Delicata winery in Paola and elaborated on the pledge in a radio interview aired on One Radio later that morning.

Cheaper tariffs would not be achieved by burdening the national economy, he said. The plans would be clearly laid out, and people would be able to work out for themselves what the proposals would mean for their own bills.

The energy policy would also include concrete timelines, Dr Muscat pledged.

“We’ll bind ourselves to a delivery date. I want a Government that’s kept on its toes.”

Dr Muscat also reiterated his calls for widespread judicial reform. Courts needed to be simplified and cases concluded more swiftly, he said.

Disciplining of judges and magistrates had to be opened up, he argued.

“As things stand, the Commission for the Administration of Justice can either give a judicial member a slap on the wrist, or else chop off their head. They’re two extremes and we need to find some middle ground.”

Cabinet should still play a role in appointing judges and magistrates, but there should be appropriate checks and balances to ensure accountability.

Dr Muscat also said that Malta’s presidency of the EU, scheduled for the start of 2017, should be organised in partisanship. “It’s a national project. I would rope in the best from the Nationalists, Labour and Alternattiva Demokratika and have everyone work together on it.”

Before making these comments on One Radio, Dr Muscat toured Delicata winery.

The company used more than one million grapes in August and September alone, and has invested more than €1.5 million in infrastructure over the past four years, company director George Delicata said.

“EU accession meant we had to completely change our business model to compete with imported wines,” he added.

“But local producers can never be on a level playing field with large foreign ones. Economies of scale just won’t allow it.”

Dr Muscat, who praised the company for encouraging the return and reuse of glass bottles, said protecting farmers and fishermen was essential and voiced optimism about the future of Maltese products.

“I have full faith in Maltese products and I think that with a little more education, consumers will realise just how high-quality many of them are,” he said.

The visit comes as Delicata winery faces accusations that it used Italian grapes in two of its Maltese DOK-certified wines. Any local wine certified DOK should be produced in its entirety from Maltese grapes.

Mr Delicata insisted the company was innocent and said it had only found out about the investigation through media reports. He declined to comment further due to pending proceedings.

In answer to questions, the PL said the management had informed it about the allegation beforehand and no case had been instituted against the firm.

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