Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi represented Malta at an informal meeting of EU energy ministers in Bratislava, Slovakia yesterday.
Dr Mizzi lost his health and energy portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle earlier this year in the wake of the Panama Papers leak, in which he and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, were implicated. Both insist they did nothing wrong.
Announcing the reshuffle in late April, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that Dr Mizzi would be assigned “special tasks”, including “the implementation of our energy plans”. The energy portfolio was transferred to the Office of the Prime Minister.
At the Bratislava meeting, Dr Mizzi briefed the EU ministers present on Malta’s energy policy and on the progress made in the building of a new gas-fired power plant in Delimara.
Dr Mizzi briefed EU ministers on Malta’s energy policy
This was the first time he participated in an EU ministerial meeting since losing his portfolio. Asked whether the Prime Minster had given the energy portfolio back to Dr Mizzi, a spokesman for the Prime Minster said nothing had changed since the reshuffle.
He pointed out that the Prime Minister was on official duties in Finland and Mongolia. It is usually the permanent secretary who attends when a minister is absent from EU council formations.
Only last month, Dr Mizzi piloted the annual debate on the Water Services Corporation’s financial estimates in Parliament, prompting a walk-out by the Opposition to highlight the fact that it no longer recognised him as the minister responsible for the energy sector.
Dr Mizzi has just spent two weeks in China on ‘official government business’ in connection with talks with Shanghai Electric.
Last Saturday, he attended a dialogue meeting in the series Gvern li Jisma’ and was given a standing ovation by those present. Journalists wanted to speak to him about the Panama Papers controversy after the meeting, but Dr Mizzi walked away, insisting he was not prepared to reply to any questions that were not related to the subject of the meeting.
According to the Panama Papers, after the 2013 general election, Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri opened secret financial vehicles in New Zealand and Panama.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com