Updated 5.36pm

The finance minister has objected to an Opposition request for an urgent parliamentary debate on Air Malta, saying meetings with the European Commission are still in progress.

On Tuesday, Times of Malta quoted the airline’s chairman as saying that the airline would close down by the end of the year and it would be seamlessly replaced by another one. The government has, over the past months, been holding talks with the European Commission aimed at authorising state aid to save the flag carrier.

When parliament reconvened,  Opposition leader Bernard Grech demanded an immediate debate, saying this was a matter of definite national importance and public interest as laid down in standing orders.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said he would have no problem discussing the subject once the talks with the European Commission are concluded. But the talks are still in progress and another meeting is due in a fortnight, the minister said.

Commission officials are still requesting information and the next meeting might well not be the last.

He said there are five points of disagreement between the commission and Malta. The talks are taking long because the matter is complex, but the government is doing its best to safeguard the national interest, the interest of the airline and the workers. Options are still being considered by the commission on the basis of the data given to it by Malta.  

Accusing the government of lacking transparency, Grech said the country and the families of Air Malta workers deserved to be told what is being planned behind their backs.

It was the government’s problem that the European Commission was not believing it, he said.

Opposition walks out after Speaker's ruling

The sitting was suspended for the Speaker to consider whether the debate should be held immediately.

The Speaker then ruled that while the subject was important, it could not be considered urgent while talks with the European Union were continuing. 

The Opposition's request for an urgent debate was therefore denied but the Speaker recommended talks between both sides for a debate at a future date.

Grech said he regretted the decision and said the Opposition could not continue to participate in the sitting. 

PN slams the government for failing Air Malta

Earlier on Monday, the Nationalist Party slammed the government for failing Air Malta and questioned what the new airline would look like and what the future held for airline workers. 

“It (the airline) failed because the government was not able to plan and unable to negotiate,” the shadow minister for economic affairs, Ivan J Bartolo told a press conference.

He said the setting up of a new airline to succeed Air Malta would not be a simple matter of transfer of business. It could not be a seamless transition, as claimed, but a far more complex and expensive exercise for the country.

It would mean that the government would have to absorb Air Malta's debts and the costs of making its workers redundant. Bartolo asked whether this had been factored in the budget.

Mario de Marco, shadow minister for tourism, recalled that in 2012, just a few months before the 2013 general election and the change of government, the European Commission had approved a five-year restructuring plan for Air Malta that included state aid.

The Labour government failed to successfully implement that plan and failed in its latest talks with the Commission. 

In 2012, the European Commission said that the restructuring plan, drawn up by the Nationalist government "adequately addresses the financial problems of Air Malta... and the restructuring should ensure long-term viability without continued state support while avoiding undue distortions of competition," de Marco recalled.

“The present government told us they were confident that the European Commission would approve its new plan. But today we had our first official admission… that the European Commission was not convinced by the restructuring plan,” de Marco said.  

PN MP Ivan Castillo asked what the future held for Air Malta's current workers and whether they would be able to switch to the new airline.

The government, he said, lacked “the decency” to communicate its plans with unions and their members who were left in the dark and, just like everyone else in the country.

“I cannot understand how, once they knew the airline would close by the end of the year, they continued to irresponsibly engage workers,” Castillo remarked.

“This is the greatest anti-worker government that has ever existed in our country’s history,” he charged.