Malta Didn’t Wake Up Today, Clyde Caruana Says As New UK Prime Minister Set To Freeze Electricity Bills
With the UK reportedly set to freeze electricity bills, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana made it a point to remind people that Malta had implemented this exact same policy several months ago.
“The UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss said she wants to freeze electricity bills for UK citizens and that the burden should be spread over several years or the economy will collapse,” Caruana told a meeting of social partners yesterday.
“In Europe, we can now see governments trying to minimise the burdens they had loaded onto people. We also anticipate that other countries will start aiding their people as Germany is doing now.”
Caruana said he was once possibly the only EU Finance Minister and the only Maltese politician to warn that Europe “embarked on the wrong path”, in what appeared to be a reference to his rebuke of the West’s regime of sanctions against Russia last June.
“I had said that people will turn against their governments and that the European economic system will weaken. Now we can see the first [major] European government [the UK] starting to wake up… we didn’t wake up today though.”
“We were criticised that we didn’t know what we’re doing in terms of energy but it is now clear that European governments will start changing direction.”
Caruana compared the energy subsidies – which are estimated to reach €250 million by the end of this year and €300-€400 million next year – to the wage supplement granted to employers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were decisive with the wage supplement, which cost over €800 million… as a result the Maltese job market was the only one in Europe that grew, while unemployment dropped. No one else witnessed these results, and it’s not because we’re special but because we took a decision that made economic and financial sense.”
“The same applies for energy – in a few months’ time, others will definitely have to do what we’ve been doing by ourselves.”
Caruana also dismissed concerns that the energy subsidies will force the government to increase new taxes or result in the debt burden going beyond 60% of Malta’s GDP.
As for the durability of the subsidies, Caruana predicted that the conflict between Russia and the West will eventually evolve into a game of chicken and that Malta has no intention of blinking first.
“I won’t talk about the conflict itself but it’s clear that this game between giants is about who will lose their breath first… whoever loses their breath first will lose. What I can say is that we won’t be the first to lose our breath.”
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