Reclaim public land if concession terms are broken, MP Zammit Lewis urges
Former Labour minister calls out companies that 'act as if the land belongs to them'
Private developers granted government concessions must be more tightly controlled to prevent abuse, Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis said on Friday.
The former justice minister called on the government to implement stronger structures and allocate proper resources to ensure that companies and developers granted concessions comply with the conditions, and that if they don’t, the land is reclaimed.
In a Facebook post, Zammit Lewis said that such concessions can be beneficial when granted to the private sector, provided they include specific objectives and agreed-upon terms.
“What is unacceptable is when those (companies) take these concessions and speak to the media as if the public land belongs to them, some even negotiate deals with others, and in some cases, a ‘bond issue’ on it,” he wrote.
Zammit Lewis clarified to Times of Malta that he was referring to MIDI’s concession of Manoel Island, the Mediterranean Maritime Hub (MMH), and to other cases.
Earlier this week, the Shift News reported that trading of an MMH bond issue on the Malta Stock Exchange was suspended this week after the company failed to file audited financial statements. The €15 million bond was issued in 2016, when the company had already secured its concession.
The company has, however, run into financial trouble and confirmed last year that it would need to seek alternative financing to repay bondholders after a planned buyout fell through.
MIDI was awarded a 99-year emphyteutical lease for Manoel Island and Tigne Point in June 2000. The developers plan on constructing over 300 luxury apartments, commercial facilities, green open spaces and recreational facilities.
The parliamentary petition, entitled Manoel Island Post Għalina (A Place for Us), received over 29,000 signatures by the time it closed on Sunday. The petition urges the government to drop its concession contract with developers MIDI and turn the island into a public park.
Prime Minister Robert Abela pushed back against the petition, insisting that 60% of the island would remain public. Nationalist Party leader, Bernard Grech, praised the petition but stressed that all obligations under the concession contract must be honoured.
Zammit Lewis described Grech’s comments as “laughable or even tearful” and said that, as opposition leader, his role should be to serve as a “driving force of the government”.
He said if the private company fails to follow the terms of a concession, the land should be returned to the government.
“Public land belongs to the Maltese and not to the private sector,” he said.
“If the private fails, the land goes back to the state according to the conditions of the agreement.”