The EU executive is still waiting for information from the Maltese authorities on alleged cases of discrimination between locals and other EU citizens over charges for a variety of services.

The investigation primarily concerns differentiated water and electricity bills, licensing fees for tourist accommodation and public transport fares.

Replying to a parliamentary question tabled by Irish Socialist MEP Emer Costello, Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission has already started infringement procedures against Malta’s authorities concerning rebates for water and electricity tariffs and is still awaiting an official reply from them.

In the past years, the Commission has been inundated with complaints by many EU citizens residing in Malta as they are paying much higher tariffs than Maltese citizens for the same services.

The Government argues there is no discrimination as the differentiated rates are based on residency rather than nationality – something allowed by EU treaties.

According to the Government, all foreigners with a residency permit can pay the normal tariffs.

However, the complainants, who have presented a class action against ARMS Ltd on this matter, said the billing company was making it “inordinately difficult for them to benefit from the residential tariffs rate”.

The Commission said it had also received complaints about fees connected to tourist accommodation rental and was corresponding with the Maltese authorities to find out whether the current regime needed changing.

According to Maltese law, it seems that while Maltese citizens are exempted from VAT when renting property to serve as their primary place of residence, other EU citizens are obliged to pay VAT during their first year of residence as they are considered to be tourists during that time.

Writing in The Times on the issue last year, Nationalist deputy leader and MEP Simon Busuttil, an expert in EU law, said this may be leading to discrimination.

“To my mind, in this case, the same treatment should apply to the EU citizen. This means that EU citizens who come to live in Malta as their primary place of residence should not need to be required to stay in a licensed place or pay VAT on the same basis as tourists in their first year because there is no such requirement for Maltese nationals,” he wrote.

EU citizens have also raised other issues in which they claim discrimination, including personal banking, telecommunications and the issue of the European Health Insurance Cards.

In all these areas the EU executive said that it had not found any discrimination.