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Konrad Mizzi (born 4 November 1977) is a Maltese people politician and served as a Member of Parliament until 2022. He served as Minister for Energy and the Conservation of Water between 2013 and 2014, Minister for Energy and Health from 2014 until 2016, and as a Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister in April 2016.
Mizzi was re-elected on 3 June 2017 by four times as many votes as the 2013 election. He was then appointed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to serve as the Minister for Tourism from 9 June 2017 until his 2019 resignation.
Mizzi was a Partner and Head of the Energy and Infrastructure Practice for the EMEA Region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) with Pcubed, a global leader in programme management. He has previously held senior roles with Deloitte and Touche and British Telecom (Programme Director) in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom Mizzi led various change projects which included the forging of an Alliance between seven energy companies which improved services and realised large savings. He worked with Regional Government leaders of which aim was to improve deprived areas.
He was a member of a team which established the Malta Enterprise. He was a consultant to the Office of the Prime Minister where he led a number of projects which, included the first public-private partnership to improve landscaping of the main roads in Malta. Mizzi held the post of Chief Information Officer at Enemalta at the age of 26.
This saw the transformation of the energy in Malta, contrasting with the situation when Mizzi was given the responsibility when Enemalta was close to declare bankruptcy, with €840 million in debt and was consecutively downgraded by Standard & Poor's. This affecting the credit ratings of the country at the time.
Shanghai Electric is expected to be investing in the conversion to gas of an existing power plant which at present is powered by heavy fuel oil, valued at around €70million. In 2016, and following the investment by Shanghai Electric and the restructuring process that followed, Standard and Poor's upgraded Enemalta's rating to BB− with a stable outlook. Enemalta and Shanghai Electric established a joint venture to tap into renewable energy markets in Europe. They are jointly responsible for the development of the Mozura Wind Park project in Montenegro.
Demolishing the 1992 power plant, would be impossible to achieve without a new power plant due to N-1 requirements. REGULATION (EU) No 994/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 October 2010 concerning measures to safeguard security of gas supply and repealing Council Directive 2004/67/EC Over 700,000 tonnes were reduced by shutting down the Marsa power plant. Statistics from the Eurostat confirmed that Malta experienced the highest reduction in emissions in all the European Union.
Electrogas Malta Limited has recently won the award for Best European Energy Project which is organised by IJ Global. The project is expected to contribute greatly to the decrease in particulate matter by 90%. Through the Delimara Power and Gas project, Malta will be conforming for the first time, with the N-1 principle which is stipulated by European Union directives. Such concept enabled Malta to shift its financial resources onto other sectors, while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of modern and efficient infrastructure. The development of the gas fired power plant and the conversion to gas of another power plant is in line with the European Union Energy policy of the European Union, that encourages the shift to gas in the energy sector. Mizzi is also responsible for Projects Malta, the company tasked with overseeing private-public partnership initiative across a whole spectrum of economic sectors including tourism and other infrastructure projects.
The Gas power plant was officially opened in April 2017. The new power station was inaugurated minutes after the 25-year-old Delimara I power station was switched off. The old power station chimney, a 150 m structure in Malta will be demolished in the coming months.
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry will manage a new medical school as part of this project. Government's agreement with Barts a 'memorandum of understanding'
Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) was selected as the preferred bidder for the €200 million investment into St Luke's Hospital, the Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. Vitals Global has also teamed up with Mass General Brigham as part of this project.
Mizzi also worked on several other initiatives, which include out of stock medicines, the emergency department and waiting lists. In 2015, there were no out of stock medicines registered in Malta under the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme
On 12 July 2017, Mizzi appointed a new board of directors, with Dr Charles Mangion being the new chairman. Mizzi claimed that he would be working hand in hand with the new board of directors on the next phase of the Air Malta transformation."
Since Mizzi took over responsibility of Air Malta, the airline re-opened its Tunis and Frankfurt routes. The airline later made announcements on several other new routes, namely Manchester, Casablanca, Lisbon, St Petersburg, Kiev and Venice. Air Malta announced two additions to its fleet, by increasing to a total of 10 aircraft. On 19 June 2018, Air Malta received its first Airbus A320 Neo, branded in Nickelodeon special livery.
Mizzi has claimed that Air Malta can be a niche carrier based in Malta to help passengers connect between Europe and North Africa. On 10 September 2017, Ryanair announced its intentions of collaborating with Air Malta to start selling Air Malta flights on its online platform, and to collaborate on flight connections.
In 2019 the former Tourism Minister announced that Air Malta had made a profit of €1.2 million for 2018, after a loss of €10.8 million in 2017.
In January, Mizzi announced that a new government-owned company by the name of Malta Air Travel Ltd with a capital value of €70 million has been set and will be taking over the landing rights that Air Malta uses in some of the biggest airports around Europe. The new company will be leasing the landing slots Air Malta used in airports like Heathrow back to the national airline for its exclusive use.
One of the first initiatives taken by Mizzi was a plan to appoint town managers within the Malta Foundation for Tourism Zones. Paceville, which is a main touristic area in Malta, will be the first to have a designated town manager. These town managers will have their primary responsibility to maintain tourism areas and flag any possible irregularities.
Criticism from the Maltese opposition party, and the general population was expressed and a motion of no-confidence was put forward. The motion was defeated and all Government Members of Parliament voted against this motion. Mizzi was nevertheless criticised by a number of high-level Labour Party figures.
Mizzi publicly disclosed his structure in his declaration of assets. Mizzi said that the fund was solely intended to protect his family's assets, which include property in Malta and in London, a statement that was rubbished by the media. Mizzi laid out the details of the trust and the company to the Maltese Parliament in February 2016. Mizzi had declared in March 2016 that Hearnville Inc was a shell company which held no assets. Mizzi requested that the Commissioner for Revenue and an international tax audit firm to carry out a tax audit on his assets. Since the audit is complete, he closed down Hearnville Incorporated. Mizzi insisted that the financial structure he set up was not illegal and he did not attempt to hide it from the public. Public outcry related to the Mizzi's hidden offshore company later led to his resignation and was subsequently voted out of the Labour party on 23 June 2020.
On 22 December 2021, Mizzi and Keith Schembri and their immediate family were sanctioned by the United States Department of State citing involvement in "significant corruption".
In May, 2024, Konrad Mizzi together with Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, and others were criminally charged with, among other things, bribery, criminal association, and money laundering in relation to Vitals Global Healthcare and the related Hospital contract controversy.
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