Updated: PN raises further questions on €360 million State guarantee for power station

(Adds PL's reply) The Nationalist Party this morning raised a number of questions about the €360 million State guarantee for a new gas power plant. The guarantee, announced on Wednesday, is 80 per cent of the financing needed for Electrogas to build the new power station. Shadow Minister Roberta Metsola told a news conference that the new guarantee was the equivalent of €2,500 per family. She asked what were the conditions of the guarantee and what was keeping the government from putting its cards on the table. Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, she said, did not say if the call for proposals and the expression of interest had included the guarantee. She asked for the government’s agreement with the consortium and all communications and meetings between the government and the European Commission to be published. She also asked when the notifications of both the €88 million and the €360 million guarantees had been made. Shadow minister Marthese Portelli pointed out that, before the election, Dr Muscat had promised a new gas-operated power station built through private investment within two years. But after two years, the foundations had not yet been...