A consortium recently offered to invest $1 billion in Malta for the development of a clean energy production project through which electricity that would cost the consumer 30 to 40 per cent less than at present would be produced.
Malta’s EU Commissioner John Dalli said this evening that, unfortunately, the government did not seem to be giving this consortium its due attention.
Speaking during John Dalli’s project Affari Taghna on One TV, Mr Dalli said that if this was the case “it is a shame”.
The more competitive Malta was, the more work it could create and this could be a system which would also help Malta reduce its carbon dioxide emissions.
He said he was completely against the development of wind farms and said that due to its size Malta could only produce 10 to 15 per cent of its energy from solar power.
He said that the government should go into the project and carry out the necessary due diligence.
Mr Dalli denied he had asked the Prime Minister for the Commissioner’s job and said that he had never asked anything of anyone.
“I always worked and delivered and those who had to take decisions took them.”
He said he initially refused the job and told Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi he believed he should reinstate former Commissioner Joe Borg. But Dr Gonzi kept asking him to rethink and told him that Dr Borg would definitely not be reinstated. So in the end he accepted.
Mr Dalli said that he was still a Maltese politician and he might or might not contest national elections in future when he was no longer EU Commissioner.
He reiterated when asked that the Nationalist Party of today was very different from that he knew in the past and said he would like to see it return to its values.
Mr Dalli said that democracy meant giving space to everyone to express one’s opinion. But there also had to be discipline, there cannot be anarchy.
Earlier in the programme, Mr Dalli said he was not at all happy at all with consumer protection in Malta.
Malta, he said, was the only country in the EU without an active, independent and strong consumer association.
He said that he had met the people involved and there was goodwill and he encouraged the Maltese to take an interest and become members of this organisation
Asked about Air Malta, he said that this was a major problem.
A reform had to be carried out but Malta had to have its own airline to remain connected to other countries.
“We cannot depend on a low cost airline which may stop any unprofitable route whenever it wants.
“We have to find a solution that is good for the company but which also respects the workers,” he said.
Asked about his relationship with the Labour Party today, he said he had to be close to everyone and his vision for the country was that a major political step that had to be taken was that Malta had to become one country.
“If we can also do this, we will be formidable,” he said.
Asked whether he regretted the sale of Mid-Med Bank seeing the kind of profits HSBC was making today, Mr Dalli said he was proud of that sale.
He pointed out that a third of the profits HSBC was making were going to the Maltese government as tax. This amount, he said, was more than double and triple the profits Mid-Med Bank used to make.
Moreover, Malta’s financial services centre, which had now exploded, had been built on that sale.