Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today said that the European mood change towards the issue of Libya and migration is tangible, and that Malta wants EU members to come up with a plan of action to implement if a UN resolution for intervention is passed.

Dr Muscat was speaking during a radio interview with One Head of News Aleander Balzan. He said that while immigrant arrivals in Malta were not that high last year, it was also a record year in terms of total number of crossings.

He said that Malta was not swamped because it had worked effectively with the Italian Government to tackle the issue.

Turning to Libya, he said: “What is happening in Libya is crucial to the welfare of the EU. If agreement is reached in Libya – and we must stick to UN guidelines – there should be a resolution passed and Europe should on the request of Libyans intervene.

“But what we want is work to start to identify what type of mission the EU would take. The  EU should, in the event that assistance is requested, take the lead but also have international and Arab partners,” he said.

He also said that he felt the Juncker Commissioner was more proactive than the previous one. “The fact that the Commissioner now responsible for migration is Greek makes a difference, because he is Mediterranean and understands the realities of migration,” said Dr Muscat.

He also made reference to EU President Donald Tusk’s comments during a visit to Malta. “The fact that he said that we must help people but we cannot open the doors to everyone speaks volumes,” he said.

“There is a change in mood within the EU, and although there are problems in the East, we cannot forget about the situation in the Mediterranean,” said the PM.

Water and electricity

The Prime Minister then turned to the issue of utility bills and said that as from today, commercial establishments will be benefitting from reduced rates, to benefit from another election pledge by the government.

“First it was families who benefitted, and now it is businesses too,” said the PM. He was asked where the money to make good for the shortfall will come from. Dr Muscat replied with an ambiguous: “The deficit is going down and debt is going down. What we need now is a sustainable and long term plan for the future,” he said.

A game changer needed for road system

The Prime Minister also spoke about the state of the roads in Malta. He said: “Roads and infrastructure are important. We need a game changer. I am satisfied with Minster Mizzi’s work. What I now want to see is a more strategic view being adopted by Transport Malta.”

The PM said there were some major projects in motion, or soon to be commenced, such as the Coast Road, the Kappara flyover and the Marsa junction. The game changer, he said, needed to be in the maintenance of small and urban centre roads. “They were scammed into being saddled with debt by the previous government. So to surface one set of roads, they paid the price of not being able to do more because they still had to pay for the original project. That has to change,” he said.

Dr Muscat did not give details, but seemed focused on the subject saying that some form of agreement needed to be reached after checking legalities and consulting with those concerned, perhaps in terms of facilitating debt repayments.

Dr Muscat said there were other major infrastructural projects in the pipeline, but would not be drawn into commenting about them until the agreements are cast in stone. “We do not do what the other government did and promise projects that cannot materialise, such as the White Rocks project,” he said.

The campaign trail

Asked why he had been campaigning so hard, Dr Muscat took a dig at the Opposition leader. “In the runup to the campaign, he was very vocal, but for a while now, he has been in hiding. It is my job to listen to people, more so during an election campaign,” he said.

The PM said he was using the campaign as an opportunity to listen to people’s complaints as well as criticism. “Some have said that we might have lagged behind on certain issues and we may have. But we have also done a lot of work and have implanted half of our electoral manifesto after 24 months in office,” he said. Dr Muscat continued: “We may have implemented half, but there is another half left to go, we did more in 24 months than others did in 25 years,” he said.

 

Speaking about the Giovanna Debono case, Dr Muscat asked the PN what its game was. The PM said that PN exponents had promised to help those who have been involved in a construction “racket” in Gozo. Yet they denied it, only to be exposed in the media days later. “What is going on?”