Parliament at Med. Conference Centre

Further to recent letters on the subject of the rebuilding of the Opera House, while Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar welcomes the announcement that the site of the Royal Opera House is to be rebuilt, we are concerned by security issues related to having Parliament relocated to Freedom Square.

The project is thought to be completed around 2017 when Malta will take over the European Presidency. The security measures that will have to be taken due to ceremonies related to this event are mind-boggling, similarly in the case of any security threat to Parliament which is not a far-fetched scenario in the present international political climate. If Parliament were at the Opera House, these security measures would partially close off the upper entrances to Valletta, crippling activity in the commercial centre.

A Parliament down by St Elmo, say at the Auberge de Baviere, or better still, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre would not only benefit from a grandiose building that does not have to be built from scratch at taxpayers' cost, but would serve to regenerate lower Valletta which has been neglected for over a century, creating employment in this depressed area and tying in with a cultural centre at St Elmo and a prestige hotel at Evan's Laboratories. The St John's tapestries could also be accommodated in the Sacra Infermeria's (MCC) great hall, the only structure other than St John's Co-Cathedral that can exhibit them all together as has been called for, a move that would spare Valletta from the digging of a quarry in its centre, save millions of euros and further add to the prestige of the Sacra Infermeria as a Parliament House.

The MCC's theatrical activities could move up to a National Theatre on the site of the old Opera House, which would again save money in being rebuilt with the help of EU funds, pay for its own running costs, give our young performers a future and boost tourism all over Malta, none of which can be achieved by Parliament at City Gate.