As the European Commission looks to the southern gas corridor to ensure a constant gas supply to Europe, President Ursula Von Der Leyen signed a Memorandum of Understanding on an energy partnership with Azerbaijan.

The deal signed means that Azerbaijan would be doubling the capacity of delivery to Europe through the southern gas corridor delivering 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

This deal is intended on phasing out Europe’s dependence on Russian gas for energy supply. The agreement also states that both parties would also be increasing their renewable energy objectives in accordance of the Paris agreement.

The two parties have also acknowledged the importance of the Global Methane Pledge by eliminating any danger which could result in environmental and climate damage.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola stated earlier in May that Europe shouldn’t go from one unreliable partner to another. This was said after Europe had put an embargo on Russian gas, shortly after the war started.

The deal between Europe and Azerbaijan is even more controversial on a local level after disgraced Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi had signed an agreement with Azerbaijan state owned oil company Socar to run the Delimara power station.

The controversies had started when one of the shareholders involved in the project, Yorgen Fenech was charged with ordering the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Caruana Galizia, at the time of her murder, was about to reveal sensitive documents hidden from the public which were part of the Electrogas deal.

The agreement made between the Maltese government and the Azerbaijan government means that Malta is continuously loosing millions because the government had agreed on a fixed price of gas for five years. This means that when the gas prices plummeted pre-pandemic, Malta was still paying nearly double the price globally.

The recent pandemic and war in Ukraine have seen gas prices rise phenomenally and this has put the Malta - Azerbaijan deal in a different perspective.

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat took to social media to state that Europe followed in Malta’s footsteps when looking for energy.

Muscat drew parallels with ex-prime Minister Don Mintoff who sought relationships with China and himself who sought relationships with Azerbaijan.

Labour Party Deputy Leader Daniel Micallef also took to social media asking if the local oracles (PN) would condemn the direction of the European Union as they had done with the government back in 2018.