Maltese language council has not functioned for 18 months

Updated 9.50am with ministry's comments

The council responsible for overseeing the Maltese language and updating its orthography has not been functioning since its chair, Olvin Vella resigned a year and a half ago.

Aside from a brief interim replacement lasting a few weeks, the chair of the Maltese Language Council has remained vacant, and the council itself has consequently been non-functional.

The council’s executive director, Thomas Pace, whose role is similar to that of a CEO, recently resigned to take up a teaching post.

According to the law, the council is responsible for updating the orthography of the Maltese language and to “establish the correct manner of writing words and phrases which enter the Maltese language from other tongues”.

Under the Maltese Language Act, the university’s Maltese language department and the Academy of Maltese can jointly or separately nominate a council chair. The prime minister must then confirm the nominee.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Maltese Department head Adrian Grima said that both the department and the academy have nominated two candidates since Vella’s resignation in November 2024.

“Unfortunately, both have retracted their nomination because of personal reasons,” he said.

The second nominee had actually been appointed by the prime minister before stepping down for personal reasons, he said.

Grima said that his department met with the culture ministry to discuss the issue earlier this month.

“We had a cordial meeting and stressed the importance of having a functioning council, as prescribed by law,” Grima said.

'What use is having a council without finances and employees?'

Besides having a chair and council members, the National Council of the Maltese Language needs more resources like those given to the arts and book councils, he stressed.

“What use is having a chair and a council if you don’t have the financing and employees,” he said.

Grima said the council is particularly necessary as Malta becomes increasingly international.

“In today’s multilingual environment, we need a national language policy, and the council should be working on it,” he said.

A culture ministry spokesperson told Times of Malta that their recent meeting with the nominating bodies was "productive and went beyond the appointment of the president but touched on other aspects such as the financing of the council and the strengthening of the human resources base within this council so that a stronger setup is established".  

"Further discussions are now envisaged with the relevant authorities to secure funding and appropriate headcounts for the council to operate efficiently".

Vella had served as council chair since 2020, when he first offered to resign in 2023 on the back of controversy surrounding the creation of the Centre of the Maltese Language.

The centre is meant to serve as the Maltese Language Council’s “administrative, organisational and operational organ”.

When it was first formed, TVM’s outgoing head of news, Norma Saliba, was appointed as chief executive of the centre. That decision was criticised, with a judicial protest citing Saliba’s lack of expertise in the field.

Vella had initially welcomed the development and Saliba’s appointment but backtracked shortly afterwards, filing a judicial protest to scrap her appointment.

We need a national language policy and council should be working on it

At the time, the council claimed that the appointment was “illegal” as it was not consulted over plans to open the centre and did not receive a draft of the legal notice for its feedback.

Vella had submitted his resignation to the council shortly afterwards but this was refused. It is unclear whether Vella’s subsequent resignation in November 2024 was related to this issue.

Saliba left the centre in October 2024 and is now the Labour Party’s head of communication. She was replaced by Maris Camilleri.

The culture ministry said that under Camilleri's leadership, the centre has been "thriving with ample projects in collaboration with both private and public entities meant to strengthen the national language across different sectors, while targeting different age groups within the Maltese society".