Labour MEP Miriam Dalli has called upon the European Commission to ensure that the interconnector from Sicily to Malta is not disrupted, following what some considered to be a veiled threat by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio.
Malta and the new Italian populist government have been at loggerheads over the latest migration incident, with both countries refusing to open their ports to a vessel carrying over 650 refugees.
Speaking on Italian television earlier this week, Di Maio again further raised tensions between the two countries, saying that Malta is getting electricity from Italy but refusing to help with migrants.
“We give Malta electricity, there is a cable that starts in Ragusa that gives Malta electricity, and Malta refused to help out the Aquarius, which was in its SAR [Search and Rescue] zone,” Luigi di Maio said when interviewed on Porta a Porta by Bruno Vespa.
Reacting, the Maltese government said it was surprised by Di Maio’s statement, adding that Malta buys energy from the European grid via the Malta-Italy interconnector, at commercial rates.
Di Maio’s tough talk comes days after his colleague, Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli, said that if Malta could not cope with its vast search and rescue zone it should hand over part of it.
In her questions to the EC, Dalli said the Malta-Italy interconnector was put in place to end the isolation of the Maltese Islands from the European energy network - through a substation in Ragusa - and to provide security of supply and flexibility in the islandʾs electricity services.
She referred to Di Maio’s comments as a “veiled threat”, adding that the Aquarius rescues had happened in the search and rescue area of Libya, not Malta.
Dalli asked the EC if it considered such “threats” by a Member State acceptable, and how the EC can ensure that projects of common interest are not used to threaten energy isolated member states.
“In view of the statement made, can the Commission ascertain that the interconnector between Malta and Italy is not disrupted,” she asked.