The Nationalist Party would, if elected, look into land reclamation and building offshore wind farms, PN leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday night.

Speaking at a party event in Msida, Grech said that the party is willing to look into the possibility of going in the direction of land reclamation, but that this has to be studied properly in order to consider its feasibility and expense, particularly as Malta’s sea gets deep very close to the shore.

Up till today though, the pros and cons of land reclamation are too close for this to happen, Grech said.  However, he said that land reclamation is an area of “major potential.”

He added that land reclamation would not, in his view, be near the coast, but that it is very expensive to do it out at sea because of the depth of the Mediterranean around Malta. 

From an energy perspective, Grech said that a PN government would work hand in hand with the private sector in order to invest in offshore wind farms, where technology has developed to allow this to happen even in deep seas, which would give a significant boost to Malta’s renewable energy production.

Speaking about the Ukraine crisis and the government’s passport u-turn, where the govenremtn has now suspended the applications of people from Russia and Belarus for Maltese passport due to concerns with carrying out due diligence, Grech said that Robert Abela had only acted because he had no choice to do so.

“Robert Abela spent a whole week thinking about whether he should send a clear message on whether it’s okay for one country to invade another democratic country or not,” Grech said.

Grech said that the PN’s stance on the matter – which was to call on the government to stop issuing Maltese passports through the IIP scheme to Russian nationals – was not because he has any ill will towards Russians, but because he wanted to send a clear message to those who do not follow the principles of democracy.

Robert Abela only decided to stop issuing these passports now “because he had no other choice,” Grech said.