As Prime Minister Joseph Muscat walked into the European Council in Brussels this afternoon, an issue that maybe has not found itself so far in the national consciousness will maybe find itself of topical importance at this European Council.

The issue, put in simple terms, is this: in a few months or weeks, our country will be joined to the European grid through the interconnector. Now in the big debates on Enemalta in the past days, the government, through Minister Konrad Mizzi, has boasted that when all the current plans for energy generation are completed, Malta will have more energy than it can consume.

Now the issue at this evening's session of the Council is precisely this: the EU wants to promote interconnection between member states and, where possible, those who have excess supply are being urged to sell it to neighbouring countries.

That is easier said than done. In fact, right as I am writing, there may be a big argument going on between the Spanish prime minister Rajoy and French president Hollande.

Spain, through its windfarms, produces more energy than it can consume. It has been trying to sell its excess capacity to France, but the French government, which has a huge stake in nuclear energy, has been putting all sorts of obstacles to stop Spain from selling cheap energy to France. At one point, it was argued that the pylons ruin the landscape.

So the Spanish delegation has come to Brussels determined to enforce a minimum 15% exchange between neighbouring countries over and above the French objections.

That is where the issue of Malta's interconnector comes in: although the interconnector was originally conceived as bringing excess electricity from Sicily to Malta, the increased energy generation that Malta can get through the current plans mean Malta may be able to sell its excess energy to Sicily which does not have too much of its own anyway.

A study that has been widely mentioned these past days has shown that if all the EU is on one grid, an energy open frontier, some EUR 60 billion a year can be saved.

All this is, of course, given heightened importance because of the crisis regarding Ukraine with Russia cutting down on its energy exports to Europe.