MIDI deal: Edward Zammit Lewis, Alex Sciberras engaged to assess concession

Updated 6.20pm with statement by seven NGOs 

Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis and party president Alex Sciberras have been tasked with combing through the MIDI concession to assess potential breaches by the concessionaires, Robert Abela has said.

Abela said he would be meeting activists pushing against the Manoel Island project on Friday morning and would follow that up with a separate meeting with small MIDI shareholders.

The meetings come after Abela publicly pledged to look closely at the MIDI concession to see if there was anything the government could claw back from it.  

Zammit Lewis and Sciberras, who are both lawyers, have both been critical of MIDI and plans for Manoel Island: Zammit Lewis has called out developers who use public land obtained through concessions as the basis of bond issues [as MIDI did in 2016] while Sciberras was among the 29,000 people who signed a petition calling for Manoel Island to be turned into a national park.

'Fenech Adami gave concession to his friends'

In comments to NET News on Wednesday morning, Abela revealed that the ongoing saga was on cabinet’s agenda during a meeting held on Tuesday. He said Labour’s broader parliamentary group would also be sounded out.

“Eddie Fenech Adami gave his friends this concession in 2000 for peanuts,” Abela said, referring to the Nationalist prime minister at the time when the deal was approved – unanimously - by parliament.

“Now, I am the prime minister. And it’s down to me to find a solution for the mess of a contract signed back then.”  

Abela said MIDI had been allowed to “do whatever they liked” for years, but that would no longer be the case.

“Just look at the original masterplan and development brief, and see how they did whatever they wanted,” he said.

The concession granted MIDI plc a 99-year lease on land at Tigne Point and Manoel Island, which the company was bound to develop within certain timeframes. 

Activists say MIDI has breached that contract by not developing Manoel Island in time, and that the government therefore has a legal argument for reclaiming the land. 

MIDI says that is incorrect, as delays are due to circumstances out of its control which therefore, according to the concession deal, invalidate those development timelines. 

Seven NGOs welcome shift in position

Seven NGOs on Wednesday welcomed the invitation to meet Prime Minister Robert Abela to discuss the Manoel Island concession and the shift in position by the Nationalist Party.

The NGOs were reacting to comments made by Opposition leader Bernard Grech who said the party was willing to do “everything possible” to turn Manoel Island into a national park, marking a change in emphasis from previous declarations.

“Saving Manoel Island and returning it to the public has gained further momentum now that the Opposition has shifted its position,” one of the signatories of the joint statement, BirdLife Malta, said.

The NGOs noted that there is precedence to their request for a re-think on the Manoel Island project, as past governments have altered development plans and designated sites as public parks.

The Għadira Nature Reserve was created after a road planned to cut through it was rerouted towards the beach. The Majjistral Park was originally earmarked as a golf complex.

The NGOs expressed their hope the government “will also leave a legacy by being bold enough to declare that it will protect Manoel Island from any development and create a public park that can be enjoyed by all.”

The statement was jointly signed by: Tuna Artna Lura, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Moviment Graffitti and Nature Trust – FEE Malta.