John Dalli rubbished claims that the energy company Sargas – which had proposed the construction of an offshore power plant in Malta – was somehow connected to the trips he made to the Bahamas last summer.

Mr Dalli was speaking at a press briefing at which he maintained his innocence concerning the trips, which were revealed by the International Herald Tribune last Monday, and announced that a meeting between him and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had ended on a “very positive” note. He also confirmed that there will be no change concerning his appointment to head a reform body at Mater Dei Hospital.

Towards the end of the briefing, the former EU commissioner was asked to explain what he meant when he said, in comments to the press a few days ago, that he had talked about an innovative and cheap form of generating power that would be very useful in the project when he was in the Bahamas. The project to which Mr Dalli referred is the philanthropic initiative to which he maintains he was giving voluntary advice.

Mr Dalli clarified that the “cheap power generator” was not a power plant but an innovative electricity generator that was cheap to produce and very cheap to run.

Sargas was mentioned in a follow-up question, which prompted Mr Dalli and members of his family to burst out laughing – a reaction that was also made to a number of other questions by the press.

Mr Dalli had been a consultant to Sargas before he was made European Commissioner, and when the company came up with its power plant proposal, it had contacted him to arrange a meeting with then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

Mr Dalli said that he could do a whole programme discussing the Sargas issue, before exclaiming that the situation had been an “obscenity”.

The former commissioner said that when he wrote to Dr Gonzi, he had asked him to first verify that Sargas was actually capable of investing the $1 billion it was planning to invest in its proposed offshore power plant.

He had also asked him to look into the carbon capture and storage technology Sargas was using to produce clean energy, pointing out that he was aware that the EU had approved it as a clean energy technology.

Mr Dalli added that he also told the former prime minister that if such a project could be carried out, with a subsequent substantial reduction in charges, he would “win the next election”, which was ultimately won by the Labour Party with a comfortable majority.

But instead of taking this advice, Mr Dalli added, Dr Gonzi presented the project negatively, also emphasising the use of coal. The former commissioner noted that this was “absolutely not true”, since the plant was set to use liquefied coal, adding that the former prime minister gave the deceitful impression that the coal heaps that used to be piled at the Menqa when the Marsa power station ran on coal would return.

Mr Dalli also insisted that instead of passing on the proposal to experts in the field for review, Dr Gonzi “gave it” to columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia and TV presenter Lou Bondi to discredit it.

This assertion led to a swift reaction from Mr Bondi, who contacted the press to “categorically deny” that the former prime minister had ever contacted him over the Sargas proposal.

He also said that he was talking to his lawyers over a possible libel action.