Watch: MEP David Casa Defends EU’s Azerbaijan Deal, ‘No Whiff Of Corruption Here’
Nationalist MEP David Casa has insisted that no parallels can be drawn between the EU’s new gas deal with Azerbaijan and the Maltese government’s deal with the same country.
“All the international media were invited to attend the signing of yesterday’s deal, the deal is fully transparent and there’s no whiff of corruption about it,” Casa told a press conference when asked by a ONE TV journalist for his reaction to the deal.
“Those are the big differences between the deal struck by the PL government and the deal struck by the EU yesterday.”
Casa’s remark is a reminder of a meeting that then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had held in Baku with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in 2014.
Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and then OPM communications head Kurt Farrugia had attended the meeting but no media were invited to report on it.
Muscat attended a meeting between Maltese and Azeri officials in Baku back in 2014
The government then issued a statement to announce that Malta and Azerbaijan had signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in the oil and gas sector. However, the actual contents of the MOU weren’t published by the government.
The MOU came after Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar joined the Electrogas consortium, which was chosen by the Muscat administration to develop and operate a new LNG power station in Delimara.
Although the Electrogas power station has long been dogged by allegations of corruption, Muscat has repeatedly defended it, arguing it was a necessary project to reduce electricity bills.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen signs a deal with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
Yesterday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed a deal with Aliyev that will double the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor linking Azerbaijan to Europe by 2027 and help the EU reduce its dependency on Russian gas.
The MOU was published in full.
Azerbaijan will be able to deliver at least 20 billion cubic metres of natural gas to the EU a year, although this is still a mere fraction of the 155bcm a year it currently imports from Russia.
After the deal was signed, Muscat hit out at people who criticised him over his dealings with Azerbaijan, asking whether they will now call von Der Leyen corrupt.
Cover photo: Left: PN MEP David Casa, Right: Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in 2014
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