The Nationalist Party is sticking to its guns in opposing the “corrupt” power station deal, after the European Commission deemed that the rate of return for its operators is in line with that of similar projects.

Over the past year and a half, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has railed against the deal with Electrogas, the consortium behind the power station, and insisted that a PN government would seek to annul it.

Questioned on Dissett in 2015 about whether he would withdraw his declaration not to honour the contract with Electrogas if the European Commission approved the deal, Dr Busuttil said he would take the Commission’s eventual approval into account.

The approval is a blow to public confidence in the European institutions

Asked by The Times of Malta if Dr Busuttil still opposed the deal after the Commission’s approval, a PN spokesman said a PN government was committed to buying electricity from the cheapest source available.

The PN reacted angrily to the Commission’s approval of the deal on January 11. It said the approval was a blow to public confidence in the European institutions, as it flew in the face of what the people expected from the EU.

The spokesman said that as long as the cheapest source is the interconnector, it will be used at maximum capacity, not left under-utilised as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat intended because of his deal with Electrogas.

“On the basis of publicly available information, it is clear that the Electrogas power station will not be the cheapest source. On the contrary, it will be providing electricity at double the rates currently available from the interconnector. This is evidently why this month, government increased petrol and diesel prices,” the spokesman said.

A study commissioned by the PN showed the later arrival of the new gas-fired plant saved the country €138 million.

The study estimated the additional costs the country would have incurred in 2015 and 2016 if the country’s energy requirements had been met by the new Electrogas power plant instead of the interconnector.

The spokesman repeated the PN’s commitment to investigating all contracts signed or negotiated by Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Dr Muscat’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri.

Dr Muscat promised to publish the Electrogas contract by the end of last year.  He has since promised to publish the relevant contracts in the coming days.

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