A government delegation will be heading to Baku in Azerbaijan this afternoon for meetings with the President and Prime Minister of the country in a bid to secure a long-term gas supply for the new power station, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking during the last of the Gvern li Jisma consultation meetings, Dr Muscat spoke extensively about the deal reached with Shanghai Electric and said that now that it was concluded, the government was shifting its focus on the agreement with Electrogas.
He said that the visit to Azerbaijan would help Malta secure better strategic gas deals for the future.
DETENTION POLICY
Dr Muscat was asked about the Kamara investigation and he insisted that political responsibility for what happened should be shouldered on two levels - by who failed to take action and by who decided not to publish the inquiry.
Speaking on the detention policy, Dr Muscat said this had failed and needed to be changed. Although illegal immigrants who entered the country had to be treated as illegal immigrants, they could not be detained in an unacceptable way.
The quality of detention in Malta was being counter-productive and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela, Dr Muscat said, would be continuing a review on the detention policy started by his predecessor.
The Prime Minister said that the fact that fewer illegal immigrants were arriving in Malta was not a coincidence but a result of the fact that Malta was working closely with Italy and keeping its ears to the ground on what was happening around it.
He also spoke on the situation in Libya and said that Malta’s neutrality policy was leading the country to be the bridge of people in the Mediterranean.
MALTA-GOZO LINK
Asked about the link between Malta and Gozo, Dr Muscat said the government would be giving this priority whether it was a bridge or a tunnel.
It already had the necessary information on a bridge but was awaiting that on the tunnel option.
A tunnel, he said, would have to start well before Cirkewwa from a place that was environmentally sensitive.
He did not exclude the holding of a referendum if public opinion was divided saying that, in that case, a decision would have to be taken whether this would be just for Gozitans, Gozitans and Maltese who also lived in Gozo, or the whole country.
CORINTHIA
Dr Muscat welcomed the announcement that Corinthia would be developing Malta’s first six-star hotel in Malta, which it promised would be its best hotel in the world.
PROJECT FOR THE SOUTH
The Prime Minister said that a project for the south was to be developed on 40 tumoli of land at Pace Grasso.
While 20 tumoli would be retained as an open space the rest would be transformed into a project that would include a medical hub, parking, places for the disabled and commercial areas.