Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi would not commit to the June 2016 deadline he gave Parliament for completion of the new power station.

Addressing the media at the Labour Party headquarters today, he instead said that the new plant should be commissioned in summer.

Asked whether this meant that there was another new completion date, since he had given June 2016 as the final date, Dr Mizzi said that he did not make that commitment but only that the plant would be built by June.

Dr Mizzi said that what mattered most was that the Labour government had kept its promise to lower electricity tariffs as from March 2014.

Dr Mizzi lambasted Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil for his energy policy.

He accused Dr Busuttil of shooting from the hip to criticise Labour without having his own energy policy.

He said that with Dr Busuttil at the helm, electricity tariffs would rise again. 

PM, KONRAD MIZZI 'LIVING A LIE' - PN

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said Dr Mizzi’s declaration today showed that both him and the Prime Minister were living a lie.

Before the election, they had promised that the power station would be ready by March 2015 and later that it would be operational by June next year. It now seemed that even the second promise was a lie.

This was apart from the fact that the government had bound itself to buy electricity from the new station at a higher price than from the interconnector.

This also meant that bills, which were already high considering that the international price of oil was 75 per cent lower than it was three years ago, would be kept high.