The Nationalist Party has said that there is a need to assess what has been done so far, identify what more must be done and draw up a clear plan with solutions to address the power-cut crisis that is severely affecting families, workers, businesses and Malta’s tourism sector.
In a statement following a meeting held with social partners on Monday, the PN said it is clear that further investment is needed, together with a strategy to address infrastructure that is failing to keep pace with the country’s needs.
The meeting between an Opposition delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition and the PN Alex Borg, and the social partners forming part of the MCESD, during which the energy crisis was discussed was held at the Office of the Opposition in Parliament, where representatives of trade unions and constituted bodies raised their concerns about the situation and put forward proposals on what should be done.
The PN said that it had taken the initiative to convene the members of the MCESD after receiving no date for the meeting it had requested with the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development on the energy crisis.
By contrast, a Council meeting requested by the Government shortly after the Opposition’s formal request was held in recent days, the party noted.
The PN also said that the government is continuing to refuse serious parliamentary scrutiny of the situation in the electricity sector because it knows that such scrutiny would expose years of poor planning, insufficient investment and misplaced priorities.
“When the Opposition requested that Parliament debate the crisis after the PN presented a Motion of No Confidence in Minister Miriam Dalli, the Government simply closed Parliament for the summer to avoid the debate,” the PN said.
The party said that this came in addition to blocking scrutiny of the Auditor General’s report in the Public Accounts Committee and refusing the Opposition’s request for the PAC to discuss the situation urgently. The PN said that the government also refuses to explain where and how the €140 million it claims to have invested in the electricity distribution network was spent, and does not want to account to Parliament for all the damage and faults that have occurred.
“In light of all this, the Opposition itself convened the social partners to discuss the power-cut crisis, the way forward and the automatic compensation mechanism it is proposing to compensate people whenever their electricity supply is interrupted,” the PN said.
At the beginning of the meeting, Leader of the Opposition Alex Borg explained that the situation Malta is once again experiencing this summer was foreseeable. He recalled that power cuts are not isolated incidents, but form part of widespread and long-standing problems which the Government has failed to address seriously, despite being aware of the difficulties experienced during previous summers.
He also recalled that the report by the National Audit Office showed that investment in the electricity system had decreased rather than increased, demonstrating that the Government had failed to ensure that Malta had infrastructure capable of keeping pace with ever-growing demand.
While outlining the steps taken by the Opposition to address the crisis, the PN Leader also emphasised the need for the social partners to form part of the national discussion on this issue of national importance, with social dialogue taking place continuously and not only when a crisis arises.
On automatic compensation, the PN Leader recalled that the Opposition is insisting that families and businesses affected by prolonged or repeated power cuts should receive compensation automatically, clearly and transparently. This compensation would be imposed automatically by the regulator for all those who suffer interruptions to their electricity supply.
The Opposition also called for Enemalta workers, who are being forced to bear the burden of the Government’s political failure and are working tirelessly to resolve the crisis, to be adequately compensated. These workers, who are operating in difficult conditions to repair faults throughout the summer, deserve support and fair compensation.
The Opposition delegation attending the meeting was led by Leader of the Opposition and of the Partit Nazzjonalista Alex Borg and included PN Deputy Leader Alex Perici Calascione, Shadow Minister responsible for Social Dialogue Bernard Grech and Shadow Minister responsible for Energy Mark Anthony Sammut.
The social partners represented at the meeting included The Malta Chamber, the Malta Chamber of SMEs, the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU), Malta Employers, the GWU, UĦM Voice of the Workers and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), as well as representatives of the Civil Society Committee and the Gozo Regional Committee within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.