The Council of Ministers approves the electricity plan.. Here are the main decisions of today’s session

The Council of Ministers held an ordinary session this afternoon in the Grand Serail headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and attended by the ministers, who were absent: Firas Abyad, Hector Hajjar, and Issam Sharaf El-Din.

After the session ended, Information Minister Ziad Makari said: “At the beginning of the session, the Prime Minister welcomed the new Minister of Information, Ziad Makari, wishing him success. He also praised the efforts made by His Excellency the Acting Minister of Information, Judge Abbas Al-Halabi.

The Prime Minister said: On the subject of the parliamentary elections, the efforts made by the Ministry of Interior and His Excellency the Minister personally in completing the first stage related to nominations were successful, and the number of candidates gave an additional indication of the determination to contest this entitlement, and the government is determined to complete it successfully, God willing. In the speech I gave to announce my reluctance to run for office, I explained the reasons that compelled me to take this decision, including my confidence in the necessity of keeping the electoral process away from any personal consideration, or a question mark that may affect the Council of Ministers regarding this entitlement. In the 2005 government, I wished all ministers not to run, Today, I was hoping that the experience would be repeated, but we can only wish our colleague, His Excellency Minister Georges Bushkian, every success in running for the elections.

The Prime Minister added: On the issue of food security, yesterday we held a lengthy meeting of the Ministerial Committee to complete the decisions taken at the last session of the Council of Ministers. The competent ministers presented the steps that have been taken or that are in the process of being implemented, and here I reiterate what I have previously confirmed that the food requirements are being processed, with caution, and there is no justification for the panic that took place. I asked His Excellency the Minister of Economy to have in our hands a table of all the necessary commodities for the Lebanese food basket, and the quantities available or that we need until the end of this year. Many countries expressed their willingness to provide us with wheat and any other materials. We in the Council of Ministers will follow this file with clarity and insistence. As for the electricity file, since the beginning of our governmental duties, we agreed to speed up the completion of a comprehensive plan for this sector, and we agreed in principle on the plan set by the Minister of Energy We asked to include basic steps in its core, and so far this matter has not been achieved.

The Prime Minister continued: On the issue of the Lebanese University, the situation is not good because there are matters that need to be decided on, and there are four decrees that need to be presented to the Council of Ministers, and we will follow up the file with the Minister of Education to decide what is appropriate.

As for the file of justice and the judiciary, and with my full respect for the judiciary, we cannot as a cabinet as a whole not have an answer to what happens in the judiciary from random and emotional, especially since there is a general impression that some of what happens in the judiciary is not related to judicial principles. What is happening in The banking file is not sound. Our priority was and will remain the rights of depositors and this is what we focus on in all the plans we are making, but the show and police method in which the file of rights and judicial issues related to banks are approached is dangerous and would undermine the remaining confidence in the banking system, and depositors will pay the price again, and I am afraid That things would develop into ominous consequences if he did not insist on correcting the excesses and imbalances that occurred. The file will be followed up by the Minister of Justice to put the treatments on the right track.”

McCary added:After that, the Council of Ministers moved on to discussing the agenda, approving some of its items and deferring others to the next session due to lack of time, and the most important decisions taken:

Approval of an agreement between the European Union Mission in Lebanon and the Ministry of Interior regarding the monitoring of the 2022 parliamentary elections.

– Assigning the Ministers of Justice, Economy, Agriculture, Finance and Education, each within its competence, to prepare appropriate proposals in the following topics: correcting the course of the general judicial situation, food security and the issue of wheat import and cultivation, the status of the Lebanese pound and withdrawals in banks and ceilings, the status of the Lebanese University and emerging educational matters, and raising Those proposals to the Council of Ministers for discussion in the next session of the government.

On the issue of electricity, the Council of Ministers decided:

First: Approval of the national plan for the sustainable advancement of the electricity sector in Lebanon attached to the letter of the Ministry of Energy and Water No. 1968 / dated 2-3-2022 after amending the date of the appointment of the regulatory authority to become in the year 2022 instead of the year 2023.

Second: Emphasis on what was stated in the electricity plan in terms of implementing Law No. 469/2002 in its current form, as well as instructing the Ministry of Energy and Water to prepare a special book of conditions for launching an international tender for the establishment of production and energy distribution plants within a maximum period of two months from its date.

In response to a question, the Minister of Information said: The issue of the Selaata area has not been dropped, nor has it been specified. Rather, a coastal area has been identified due to the existence of issues related to acquisitions and the objection of municipalities.

In response to a question, he said: The Minister of Energy and Water has made a great effort and detailed work, and he is authorized to speak in detail and explain.

Minister of Energy

For his part, Minister of Energy and Water Walid Fayyad said: “I approved the electricity plan, praise be to God, and congratulations to the great people of Lebanon. Among the plan is the master plan and the determination of locations for all new energy production plants on the basis of an economic, financial and environmental feasibility study, and nothing contradicts what we discussed previously.”

The Council of Ministers requested that we make an effort in the matter of establishing the regulatory body as soon as possible. I am now looking forward to the second stage after this success and the meeting by the Council of Ministers.”

Minister of Justice

After the session, Justice Minister Henry El-Khoury explained what happened today in the vicinity of his house by saying: “Last week, Mr. William Noun visited me at the Ministry of Justice, and we spoke so that I was surprised today by a gathering in front of my house, in which my daughter was present, and then I was surprised that those present, and I do not know what should be done. To call them, demonstrators or protestors, and without knowing the reason, they advanced in front of the door of the house, where they sprayed it with black paint, as they wrote on the walls the names of the port’s martyrs, may God have mercy on them, and we never wished for what happened, but I did not understand the motives behind this move today. “.

He added: “There was a contact between me and Mr. William Noun, who says that I promised him last week to meet with the President of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Public Prosecutor of Cassation, knowing that communication with them is permanent every time the need for that, and I actually spoke to them, but if Mr. Noun wants to know What happened, the rules require, as he came the previous time to the Ministry of Justice, to return to ask me what happened, not to intimidate my children in the house and knock on doors. .

He continued: “Things were resolved later and the group left in front of the house after the security forces attended. From here I repeat if he wants to know the answer, he is not at the door of the house, so he should come to my office at the Ministry of Justice at any time he wants to talk to him, as he did last week.”

In response to a question about the port’s investigation file, he replied: “What happened today is independent of these matters, if they want something from the judiciary, and the palaces of justice exist, and the powers of the Minister of Justice are limited and known. between them, and we come to be held accountable for things that are not in their place at all.”

Minister of Works

Then the Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamiyah spoke, who said: “I want to put you in an optimistic picture through 3 items that were approved in today’s session. The first is to raise the classification of the Qaa crossing from the second category to the first, and thus it became a border crossing through which transit and Lebanese trucks and refrigerators cross, This provides all the Lebanese and the people of the Bekaa with an additional crossing point to activate the commercial movement to reach Iraq and other countries.

The second item is the amendment of Law 53 of the Customs Law, which allows, within the Lebanese borders, the presence of a container terminal. The Director General of Customs wants to have a dry port in the Bekaa, and this is a historic achievement for the Bekaa region.

As for the third item, it is the approval of the Matribah-Hermel crossing, as the people of this region suffer a great deal of trouble to cross into Syria through al-Qaa and the factory, and therefore the people of Hermel have an additional crossing, which is the Matribah crossing, according to a cabinet decision that facilitates their movement at a lower cost.

These three decisions are fundamental to us, which drives the economic cycle in the peripheral regions of Lebanon.”

Minister of Youth and Sports

The Minister of Youth and Sports, George Claes, spoke about the issue of the Lebanese University, saying: “There was a decision in the office of the President before entering the session to put the issue of the university on the table of the Council of Ministers, and this is what happened. He listened to the representatives of the Association, the professors and the employees, then during the cabinet session he listened to a detailed report from the Minister of Education. There will be a committee to address the situation quickly because the Lebanese University is on strike, not in favor of anyone. The Lebanese University has become a dangerous mistake.”