Nationalist MEP candidate Peter Agius has urged the Maltese government to seek EU funding for the construction of a metro, accusing it of adopting a “defeatist attitude”.

Addressing a political activity in Attard, Agius noted that other European countries have utilised EU funds to invest in mass transport. In particular, he cited how the EU gave Spain €200 million to upgrade the Madrid metro network and how it contributed €70 million towards the construction of the New Europe Bridge linking Bulgaria and Romania.

Costs for the construction of a metro in Malta are expected to run into the billions and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has warned the project won’t be feasible unless the country’s population grows “significantly”.

Agius questioned why Malta isn’t making much use of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, a loan fund for businesses who cannot find banks willing to finance an entire investment.

“Malta deserves better and we have now reached a point where we need to take a huge leap of quality on our infrastructure,” he said. “Since 2004, our country wisely matched the needs of the country with the appropriate European funds. Now it seems that we are losing this ability, and our defeatist government is losing the European dream, a dream which it probably never embraced.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]