Updated 2.30pm
A €90 million plan to convert Malta’s bus fleet to run on electric power has gone “down the drain” because the government no longer intends to use EU funds to help do that.
The secret government decision to change its EU funding priorities was revealed by the Nationalist Party at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
PN MP Ryan Callus said correspondence sent to the European Commission reveals that the Maltese government has withdrawn plans to use €34 million in funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund to fund the electrification of over 100 buses in Malta Public Transport’s fleet.
As a result of that decision, Malta Public Transport would not be going ahead with a €500 million electrification project, Callus claimed.
The government’s “secret” decision means an additional €7 million in EU Connecting Europe funding that was earmarked for Malta Public Transport to install EV charging infrastructure was …