Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1378870
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 MAY 2021 OPINION SHORT of being caught in a vid- eo-conference with your under- pants, the resounding chiding of Alex Saliba by the chairwoman of the Budgetary Control Com- mittee is probably the most em- barrassing moment an MEP can experience in the otherwise very civil environment of the Europe- an Parliament. In the following lines I will try to explain that there is more to this exchange than meets the eye, trying to keep as fact-based as possible. First thing to point out is that there was no Maltese MEP in the Budgetary Control Committee that was debating a motion tying the barbaric as- sassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia to EU funding in Malta. This committee bears a funda- mental importance in the work- ings of the European Parliament and yet, no Maltese MEP is member, nor substitute, in its debates and votes. This commit- tee is not the only one where we are not represented. The Agri- culture Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and a good eight other Committees where Malta has significant stakes in EU developments are equally de- void of Maltese representation. The reasons for this lack of rep- resentation are varied, starting from the difficulties of clashing agendas from several commit- tees meeting at the same time and continuing in the practice of limiting the number of com- mittee membership for each MEP. The latter practice is, in my humble opinion, in dire need of a revision given that, with six MEPs Malta is systematically underrepresented in commit- tees which essentially are the re- al powerhouse of the European Parliament. The above clarification puts Agius Saliba's effort to intervene in the Budgetary Control debate on the use of EU funds in Malta as a noble one in principle. Sal- iba had to exercise a little used faculty of asking for special per- mission to address the commit- tee in which he has no status. The second point can be best illustrated by a reference to the most common ethics of human relations. When I invite a friend or acquaintance at home, I ex- pect such a friend to behave, not to mistreat my dogs, not to in- sult my wife or my own friends. Saliba erred grossly on such ba- sic ethics. Thinking that an EP commit- tee endorses such methods that he can use with his gullible core vote at a Labour Party każin, his address to committee chair Hohlmeier was rife with partisan content, shooting accusations to political groups and MEPs sitting in that same committee. Had the MEP addressed the point with the facts showing Malta's good track record on EU funding and the rigorous checks that the state authorities effectively em- ploy to handle and avoid risks of fraud to EU taxpayer money, the MEP would have been a ver- THIS pandemic has certain- ly shown us how vital it is for Europe to be united in facing common challenges; however in doing so, we must ensure that no country, region or is- land is left behind if we want our Union to come out of this crisis successfully. On the energy front, certain issues which existed pre-pandemic are still persisting. This is es- pecially true when it comes to the integration of outerlying regions and islands, such as Malta, with the main conti- nental grid, while transition- ing towards cleaner and sus- tainable energy sources. The European Green Deal, presented in December 2019, outlines the EU's plan towards climate neutrality by the year 2050, with one of the main cornerstones of this strategy is the decarbonisation of all economic sectors, including energy and hard-to-decarbon- ise secots. In layman's terms, this implies a shift away from electricity generation based on polluting fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, towards clean and renewable sources such as solar, wind and tidal energy. In order to reach this goal, the EU is banking on a more widespread deployment of hydrogen generated from re- newable energy sources, as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. However, hydrogen currently represents only a small part of the EU's energy mix, with 97% of its production current- ly being based from fossil fuel sources, not to mention that clean hydrogen is currently not sufficiently abundant, and uncompetitive, price-wise. By revising its Trans-Eu- ropean Networks for Ener- gy (TEN-E) policy, the EU is working towards repurposing existing gas infrastructure, in order for these pipelines to be able to transport clean hy- drogen once its use becomes more widespread. However, here is where Malta is stuck in a somewhat dead-end in its quest to also be climate neu- tral by 2050; currently we do not have any gas infrastruc- ture connecting us to the rest of the continent with the Eu- ropean Commission shooting down a recent application for funding. The current revision of TEN-E regulation, which we are currently debating in the European Parliament's ITRE Committee, will only allow for the financing of pipelines which will transport hydro- gen; or for repurposing exist- ing gas infrastructure to be hy- drogen-ready. This will leave Malta effectively isolated from the rest of the European grid, as the Government has reiter- ated that for the island to be able to move towards incorpo- rating hydrogen in its energy mix, it must first be connected to the rest of Europe via a gas pipeline, which would be able to be converted to hydrogen use once it becomes more eco- nomical. I have raised this point many a time during the discussions and debates on this regulation at Committee level, arguing that while the end goal should always be to generate energy from clean, renewable sourc- es, we must also incorporate new projects which will first transport natural gas as part of a 'transition' phase to previ- ously unserved regions, Malta included. By establishing this energy integration with the European grid, Maltese con- sumers will also be benefitting from cheaper electricity pric- es, thus leaving more dispos- able income in pockets. In the meantime, I welcome further research and innova- tion when it comes to the de- velopment and deployment of renewable energy, in the quest to decrease our reliance on non-renewables. We must al- so guarantee that each region would be able to keep up with demand all-year round, taking into account certain season- al fluctuations in generation which may affect wind and so- lar power in some areas of the Union. Connectivity: a vital component for climate neutrality 'Poor Alex' Peter Agius is an MEP candidate (PN) kellimni@peteragius.eu Cyrus Engerer Is a Labour MEP (S&D) Peter Agius Cyrus Engerer