Malta’s lobbying to ensure positive prospects of tapping EU funds for a gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily seems to have been successful as the summit conclusions on energy and climate call for special attention to be paid “to the more remote or less well connected parts of the single market such as Malta, Cyprus and Greece”.
Sources close to the government said yesterday that Malta would be lobbying to ensure that such an ambitious project would not be placed on the back burner by Brussels, as otherwise the financial outlay for such project would be prohibitive for Malta.
In December 2012 a call for tenders was issued for a €1 million feasibility study on a natural gas pipeline between Malta and Sicily, with 80 per cent of its costs funded by Brussels.
Though the study has not yet been concluded, it is highly relevant in the wake of the debate stoked by the announcement that the new gas-fired power station in Delimara will not be delivered by next March.
The conclusions state:
"Member states and the Commission will facilitate the implementation of projects of common interest including those identified in the European Energy Security Strategy which link in particular the Baltic States, Spain and Portugal, to the rest of the internal energy market, ensure that they have the highest priority and will be completed by 2020.
“Special attention will be paid to the more remote and/or less well connected parts of the single market such as Malta, Cyprus and Greece."
During the summit, European Union leaders struck a deal on a new target to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, calling it a new global standard but leaving critics warning that compromises had undermined the fight against climate change.
Industry bosses said they faced big challenges to adapt, while greener firms said the EU had aimed too low to spur low-carbon investment and climate campaigners said concessions to polluters made it "a dirty thirty", not a 2030 deal.
The 2030 targets will follow existing 2020 goals that the EU is on track to meet. Its emissions are already nearly 20 percent below the level in 1990, the international benchmark year.
EU to review figures after UK objects to extra payment - sources
European Union finance ministers will hold an emergency meeting to review a disputed adjustment of EU budget contributions after Britain objected to demands for an extra €2.1 billion payment this year, EU diplomats said.
They said EU presidency Italy agreed to host a special meeting of ministers with the executive European Commission to review the figures in the coming days, which British Prime Minister David Cameron challenged at the summit.
Diplomats said Cameron was supported by Italy and the Netherlands, which were also due to make extra payments by December 1, but Germany, France and Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the figures were adjusted each year when final national economic data were available, and the EU should stick to the rules.