The European Commission will tell the European Parliament that there is no ‘prima facie’ breach of EU laws in the Maltese government’s plans to anchor an LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk Bay but its reply is based on the government’s assertions that the LNG project is being developed on agricultural land away from residential areas, this paper has learnt.

The European Parliament had approved a 3,000-signature petition presented by PN MEP Roberta Metsola, calling on the Commission to investigate any risk to public safety from the gas tanker.

A converted LNG carrier will serve as a storage facility, providing liquefied gas to an onshore regasification unit which would then feed the fuel, in gas form, to three gas-fired turbines. The FSU would have to be resupplied by another gas tanker. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said the tanker solution would be used until Malta developed a gas pipeline linking it with Italy.

Last April, the European Parliament accepted Dr Metsola’s petition, in which she urged the government not to rush with its proposal to berth the huge floating gas storage unit in the middle of the bay. She had argued that the project could run contrary to the provisions of the EU’s SEVESO Directive, and that the impact on people’s lives, the environment, businesses, fishermen and their boats had not been properly taken into consideration by the government.

The controversial project, which was approved by MEPA last year, had raised security concerns, with experts warning that a potential gas leak could lead to a fire cloud that could reach as far as Marsaxlokk. The Freeport and fishermen sailing in the bay would also be put at risk.

Government sources said Malta had replied to the European Commission, telling it that the project posed no risk since it was being developed in an area dominated by agricultural land away from built-up areas. On the basis of that reply, the European Commission is expected to tell the EP that there is no ‘prima facie’ breach of EU law.

Sources explained to this paper, however, that this did not mean that the Commission has given the project a green light, insisting that it is essentially only carrying the Maltese government’s reply back to the EP. “The European Parliament will now decide whether this explanation by the Maltese government is satisfactory or whether it wants to pursue the matter further.”

The commission has not, until this point, carried out any in depth studies on the project, and is only relying on what it has been told by Malta, but it might very well be asked to do that by the European Parliament if it finds the government’s reply unsatisfactory, the source said.