Updated 2.30pm
A €90 million plan to convert Malta’s bus fleet to run on electric power has gone “down the drain” because the government no longer intends to use EU funds to help do that.
The secret government decision to change its EU funding priorities was revealed by the Nationalist Party at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
PN MP Ryan Callus said correspondence sent to the European Commission reveals that the Maltese government has withdrawn plans to use €34 million in funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund to fund the electrification of over 100 buses in Malta Public Transport’s fleet.
As a result of that decision, Malta Public Transport would not be going ahead with a €500 million electrification project, Callus claimed.
The government’s “secret” decision means an additional €7 million in EU Connecting Europe funding that was earmarked for Malta Public Transport to install EV charging infrastructure was also dead in the water, Callus said.
Times of Malta has independently verified the PN's claims.
The €34 million would have funded the replacement of 102 diesel buses with electric equivalents, while the €7 million allocated to charging infrastructure would have funded the creation of 102 EV charging points for buses.
Later on Wednesday, MPT confirmed with Times of Malta that the government’s decision to withdraw the EU funds meant plans to electrify Malta’s bus fleet “cannot go ahead".
According to sources, the government decision was communicated to MPT management recently and is understood to be "final".
MPT is a private firm with a concession to operate Malta's public bus service. That concession expires in five years' time.
Publicly available information reveals that work to implement the €34 million electrification project was already well under way.
The government and MPT had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to use EU funds to electrify 102 buses in December 2022.
On the basis of that MOU, the European Commission had already disbursed an undisclosed amount in pre-financing. That money will now need to be refunded.
'Government incompetence'
Callus was joined by fellow PN MPs David Agius and Eve Borg Bonello during Wednesday morning's press conference.
Speaking over the din of buses at the Valletta bus terminus, the three Opposition MPs said the government had tried to keep this decision secret and not informed anyone about it.
“This is a clear sign of incompetence,” Agius said. “This company [Malta Public Transport] thought this investment was happening and was planning for it. Now it’s all gone down the drain.”
“One thing we can promise is that a PN government will not take decisions like this in secret and without informing the people. We will be transparent,” he said.
Borg Bonello said the decision meant highly polluting – and noisy - diesel buses would continue to fill Malta’s roads.
Transport was Malta’s second-most polluting sector and Malta’s rate of emissions per capita was rising at a faster rate than that of any other EU country, she noted.
The PN MPs said it remains unknown why the government had decided to ditch the electrification project or what it intended to do with funds originally allocated to that project.
Questions have been sent to the Transport Ministry and Malta Public Transport.