The Nationalist Party and Labour Party on Thursday traded accusations on how the energy sector was run and is being run.

In a first statement, issued after the government announced a public all to develop Malta's first offshore renewable energy project, PN energy spokesman Ryan Callus said the Labour Party wasted 11 years and millions of euros instead of investing in clean energy.

In 2006, a PN Government began exploring the possibility of using wind and solar energy for electricity production.

In 2009, it proposed a wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda, he said.

By 2012, there was a full plan for a project with 36 turbines. A foreign company had even submitted its proposal for a floating wind farm to the Maltese authorities, aiming to start operations in 2014.

In 2013, Labour came to power and, under one pretext or another, scrapped this plan, Callus said.

"Today, we know that in 2013, the Labour Government only had a roadmap to swindle and defraud.

"Today, we know that the Labour Government built a power station that, like many other projects, was mired in corruption," he said.

"Today, we know that the Labour Government rejected wind farms in Malta but instead concocted a deal for wind farms in Montenegro.
"Today, after wasting over 11 years, the Labour government is reconsidering wind farms."

The PN said it supported every effort to finally achieve the clean energy we deserve as a European country.
In 2021, the PN launched an energy plan up to 2050, which included a major offshore project through which we could have achieved our renewable energy targets.

The day after the PN unveiled this project, the Labour Government announced it would build a large offshore wind farm near Gozo, Callus said.

Unsurprisingly, to this day, that project remains up in the air, and it was just a quick reaction to make people believe they were doing something after the plan announced by the PN.

Had the Labour Government focused less on lining its pockets, as it did with the power station and wind farms in Montenegro, and more on improving the lives of Maltese citizens, this project would have been benefiting the Maltese and Gozitans for years now.

The Labour Government is a government of too little, too late, Callus said.

The Labour Party was quick to reply, saying that in his typical rush to issue yet another press statement, Nationalist MP Ryan Callus either forgot, or expects people to forget, that when the Nationalist Party was in government, it had announced a wind turbine project at Sikka l-Bajda, when it knew that due to environmental constraints that project could never take off.

Yet, it had gone ahead and announced the project despite knowing that it was a non-starter.  As usually happens with many projects announced under PN governments, it was shelved.

On another occasion, the then PN government came up with the idea, another non-starter, to install wind turbines at Hal Far and Wied Rini.

They knew that those projects couldn't happen, but for the sake of giving the impression that they were actively doing something, they announced them, never to see the light of day, the PL said.

On the eve of the last general election, the Nationalist Party proposed a floating wind farm without specifying the location of where this should be done, the PL added..

They had mentioned Scotland as a country that had floating wind farms - despite being aware that the sea around the Maltese islands is at least twice deeper than in Scotland.

In stark contrast to the PN's amateurish approach to this all-important sector, the Labour Government had carried out an in-depth study, carried out the necessary environmental studies and research and was today able to launch a public call to businesses interested in building Malta's first offshore wind farm, the PL said.