Oh dear, week two and Konrad Mizzi has a major problem on his hands already
European Voice reports today:
ECJ backs need for green impact assessments
By Dave Keating
Court says that Austrian legislation on impact assessments breaks EU rules
European Union members states must conduct an environmental impact assessment for any project likely to have significant effects on the environment, the European Court of Justice ruled today (21 March). The Court was ruling on Austrian legislation, which requires green impact assessments on proposed modifications to airports only if the modification will increase traffic by at least 20,000 flights per year.
Salzburg Airport had taken the case to an Austrian court after the government had ruled retroactively that a modification made in 2002 should have required an impact assessment. The airport said that under Austrian law no assessment was needed. The ECJ ruled that this law contravenes EU rules.
The ruling will have major ramifications for projects across the EU. Member states will no longer be able to place a quantitative size threshold to decide which projects need an assessment. Instead, the threshold must be based on the potential effect on the environment.
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http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2013/march/ecj-backs-need-for-green-impact-assessments/76746.aspx
Back in January, Konrad Mizzi had promised that Labour had planned the ‘gas project’ so meticulously that once they are elected, Labour would “hit the ground running.”
Me thinks Labour will hit the wall running.
Labour is more than welcome to drive itself into the wall, that would be the best thing it would have ever done.
Problem now is that we are all sitting in the back seats, and without any seat belts.
or swallowed by today’s trend, a sink hole.
They all hit the ground, face down.
They said they had been prepared to govern for a long time.
It is already showing.
The queues have been shifted OK, from Mater Dei to Pater Minister.
If they’re smart they will use this excuse to wiggle out of the new power station promise. They must know that they will never do it in two years and that it’s a crazy project anyway.
Of course that will probably leave some fourth floor denizen very disappointed indeed.
I really wouldn’t want to be in Konrad Mizzi’s shoes right now.
My thoughts exactly – and now that they’ve been installed for at least five years whether we like it or not – I bloody well hope they do use this as an excuse.
I have to agree with you lot here.
Best things PL can do is use this as an exit excuse and forget the project.
God forbid they go ahead with it. It will be the start to the economic catastrophe that will undo all the good things that the PN achieved in the last 5 years against all odds !!!
Mulej Hudni
Oh, oh, there goes t
Whoops, there goes the fast-track timeline on the energy plant bomb. Will little Joey resign, or will he boot out his ‘energy expert’?
Eva Peron would never let him resign – ma tarax.
He can resign by turning to the electorate and calling an early election however knowing that he would win again. Not much use for anyone.
This government won’t do any impact assessments. Labour worries more about doing things legally than doing them illegally.
After they find themselves having gone gas down gol hajt – they’ll HAVE to do an impact assessment. If they’re still in one piece, that is.
Xi appostlu jsibu u jtihom xi legal solution!
Godfrey Farrugia ga haseb fiha dik, go pogga states ta San Filep go nicca fl’ufficju l-gdid tieghu gewwa Mater Dei.
Nghiduha, x’inihi l-Madonna, fejn il-quaddis tar-rahal tieghu.
Environmental issues, especially regarding the gas terminal and tanks, the dismemberment of MEPA and, probably, hunting will feature prominently in Maltese politics in the coming months.
I hope the PN will be able to offer an effective opposition for NGOs will, at most, “express their concern” but do nothing more.
inbazwru ftit l hawn u l hemm ………..guess who said that!
Is-soluzzjoni cara daqs il-kristall. Ikellmu xi Laburist fl-EU u jirrangalom.
Re Konrad Mizzi – Full page with photo in The Times today – a sensational story that Konrad will have an office at Delimara. Five columns and a really big heading. Anyway, the Times keeps refering to this Minister as “Dr. Mizzi”. Can anyone, please, for de rekort, tell us in what branch is this Doctorate?
So now we have Dr. Godfrey Farrugia relocating his office to Mater Dei and Dr. Konrad Mizzi setting up his office at Delimara.
What next – Dr. Hose Herrera setting up his office at Ghar Dalam?
Joe Mizzi will have a temporary office on a bus.
Change management consultants’ effectiveness in Malta’s public service: http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/2902/
A most unfortunate topic, given that he is now a management consultant in the wrong job and in charge of a VERY big change in Malta’s public service.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/01/konrad-mizzi-is-not-an-energy-consultant-get-it-right/
He has a PhD with a long-winded title from the University of Nottingham:
Mizzi, Konrad. (2011) The contribution made by programme leadership consultants to the creation and maintenance of momentum for public service change programmes and the implications for their client sponsors: theory building within the context of a case study of the Maltese public service (1987-2001).
http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/2902/
I couldn’t be bothered to read his thesis as it seems to be a rather boring historical cut and paste account, based on a number of interviews. However, the two pages I happened to fall upon were fraught with errors.
Pg 244 (grammatical error)
The PM asked he to stay
Pg 244/245 (error of repetition)
Over time DSG became the Prime Minister’s trusted advisor.
Same phrase repeated on Pg245
Over time it was evident that DSG became the Prime Minister’s trusted advisor
Pg 245
Does not skip a line when starting a new paragraph
Pg 245 (missing word)
The Consultancy Group (MEU) was represented in these committees which ensured that the Unit was positioned to major strategic projects
Pg 245 (Constancy should read Consultancy)
The leader of MSU had repositioned the Constancy Group as supporting..
I hope he proofread and correctly computed his numbers before submitting his grand technical document drawn up for the power station.
This PhD title indeed has NOTHING to do with energy generation. Meritocracy indeed.
His doctorate has nothing to do with energy generation, but Maltese civil aervice management (sort of).
He graduated from the University of Nottingham with Distinction in his M.A. studies and has also successfully completed his Doctorate (Ph.D.). He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Malta and a Diploma in Finance. Konrad was also awarded a Chevening Scholarship from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the United Kingdom.
Konrad Mizzi has an office at Delimara, right in the thick of a cancer factory.
Joey fil parlament ftit gimghat ohra “Nixtieq nigbed l’attenzjoni tal-membri tal-kamra li nholoq intopp mill-EU fuq il-progett tal-energija, u ghaldaqstant ser ikollna intawlu d-data ta’ meta jkun lest b’sena ohra. B’hekk jien nirrizenja jekk ma jitlestiex il-progett fi tlett snin mhux f’sentejn”
On more than one occasion Konrad Mizzi said that there will not be a tender to build the new gas power station but only an expression of interest.
I have spent over 25 years, overseas, involved in rendering for the building of major infrastructural projects including several power stations. So I know a little bit about this subject.
Can Mr Konrad Mizzi, or one of his staff, explain to me what the definition of “expression of interest” is?
I can see a minimum of 12 months from now, before any serious international company can submit a detailed priced offer to build the power station…it would then take a further 24 to 30 months to build and test before handing over.
Perhaps one should ask Keith? And failing that go direct to Gazprom and Sargas for comments?
24 months is exactly what Mizzi said it would take. The detailed priced offer is clearly already in hand. Didn’t Mizzi say that electricity will cost 9c6 / unit? Not “less than 10c / unit”, or “between 9 and 10 c / unit”. No. 9c6 precisely.
Calling for expressions of interest is just so much hogwash. It’s a parallel process to what is evidently already a done deal.
Muscat said before the election that there were already companies interested in their plan. I assume some companies have already been approached before the election and are working on their bids.
Have you read that Chinese warships are visiting? It might be the guys who will be giving for free the power station that Joseph has promised.
Considering there were issues with Delimara’s extension EIA, I’d hate to think about what will happen with this one.
If he really goes ahead with this plan, start preparing for a serious exit stage left. No bailing out will make the island recover.
They are stupid to even think of going ahead with this story of the gas power station. But I guess they need to pay their electoral debts.
If the Labour Government persists with this idea of the new power station, our financial position will become dangerously similar to Cyprus. Someone pls drive some sense into these morons.
Might is right and no matter how complicated this issue becomes and how many extensions are added on to the 2 years time-frame, somehow they will see it through. With the kind of majority they enjoy, no Opposition or NGOs will stop the runaway train.
The only way to slow down the project is, if they go ahead without an EIA and the necessary permits etc., and the EU will start fining the government for contravening the rules.
However, if Joseph meant what he said, he can save the embarrassment of having to resign after the project fails, and resign now because it is clear that this project cannot possibly be completed in 24 months.
Besides the plant itself, the tanks, the regasification plant, pier and 2 ships will still have to be designed, approved and in the case of ships, found or built.
Konrad had better start breathing oxygen instead of the carcinogenic fumes at his office within the Delimara power station.
When Konrad announces his expression of interest and breaks the promise to issue the workings, we’ll know what spending 8 million on a campaign entails.
And that’s a fact.
Louis and Marlene were clear, they vouched they will, it’s their reputation against this mad pyramid scheme of an ‘investment’.
Never has the Labour Party been more insolent than this.
When I think about it, I just pray there’s someone left in Labour who isn’t indebted enough to sell this country to those who won’t even show themselves.
Given that they won’t, and that the intention is to concede Malta elsewhere, at least do us a favour, and stop monkeying around with democracy and politics. It’s obscene.
SHAME ON YOU BRUSSELS.
What he described numerous times as a DOABLE project before the election has suddenly now become an AMBITIOUS one. His words not mine.
The only countries that generate electricity by gas, are those who are lucky enough to produce this commodity as their natural resource. Otherwise, those who can barter natural gas with another product of same values.
In the case of Malta to produce electricity from gas is not possible and this can only be possible if Malta discovers its own resources.So this idea of generating electricity from gas can never be a reality.
The problem with Malta adapting to gas are:- transport, loading, storage and the amount of loses in converting liquid gas into vapour which is most dangerous process in high temperatures of summer.
Next stage is heating up the boilers to produce steam next the steam passes into tubes that heat up this steam into dry-steam that compress the turbines to turn up the dynamo to produce magnet force into electric power.
Heavy fuel oil added with water vapour do the same job and it is less costly that can make the bills of electricity and water to the prize we have today. There exist no other option to Malta. Heavy fuel oil is the safest and the cheapest and less dangerous and its C02 emissions can easily be controled by the added water vapour that can creat an emulsion in the furnce where toxic gas are turned into powder and can be collected and desposed intelligently.
Operation Konrad is a kid’s stuff.
All our comments will be useless unless the PN gets its act together and starts offering some stiff opposition.
Instead of arguing about names for the new PN leader, we should be talking of programmes and a vision for the party. Practically none of the potential candidates have expressed themselves in these terms.
Dream on – the power station will never materialise. I always thought that.