Appoint a parliamentary select committee on Manoel Island

The Manoel Island petition with 29,000 signatures asking for public ownership of the land to be reinstated and the place turned into a national park, is a significant achievement in its own right.

The activists behind the petition—Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar—have managed to put the issue on the national agenda. Their call is not unreasonable in view of the fact that when the Tigné and Manoel Island concession was granted, 25 years ago, the country’s socio-economic landscape was completely different.

The activists are arguing that government should use the opportunity afforded by the contract—the project should be substantially completed by March 2026—to renegotiate the deal and take back Manoel Island.

Nonetheless, the concession agreement is a legally-binding contract that grants the developers rights over the lands in question. It has to be noted that Tigné Point and Manoel Island—public land—were granted on a 99-year lease back in 2000 when the deal was signed.

Within this context, 29,000 signatures alone should not be dictating how the rule of law is exercised—it would be wrong to subject legally-obtained rights to the will of the people without due process and compensation.

However, a petition like this cannot simply be ignored as if nothing has happened, especially by the government that should safeguard the public interest as much as it should uphold the rule of law.

It is evident that on the Manoel Island issue there are diverse and conflicting expectations. We have MIDI plc’s shareholders and bond holders on one side, who have invested money and expect the contract to be honoured; we have those in the Gżira community and the broader public, who would like to see Manoel Island return back to public ownership and be transformed into a national park, unspoilt by luxury apartments and commercial outlets; we also have those, who would rather secure solid guarantees from the developer to ensure that when the project is completed, the proposed 60% open space will truly be so.

Finding the right balance will not be easy but we believe that as the guardian of the common good, the government should at least try to explore the avenue being proposed by 29,000 people and more, including former Prime Minister Alfred Sant.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said he received a petition from 5,000 MIDI bond holders requesting that their financial interests in the Manoel Island project be safeguarded. The truth is that Abela has no such obligation towards private bond holders. Labour backbencher Edward Zammit Lewis is right when he says it would be an ugly precedent if the government is expected to honour or guarantee private bonds.

The prime minister’s most recent comments on the issue made on Tuesday, are a welcome shift from his earlier stand that simply shut the door on petitioners. Abela yesterday said he is requesting a legal analysis of the concession and nothing has been decided yet.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, several Nationalist MPs have defied their own leader, Bernard Grech, and called for a renegotiation of the Manoel Island contract.

The dissenting voices on either side of the political spectrum are a welcome breath of fresh air.

In these circumstances and still with ample time ahead of it, the government should take the lead and set up a select parliamentary committee with representatives from both sides of the House to explore the Manoel Island issue. The committee should have a defined remit and timeframe for completing its report after hearing the testimony of different stakeholders. The committee could then make recommendations on the best way forward, which can then be discussed in the plenary.

The outcome should inform the government’s eventual decision.

We emphasise the parliamentary route since the Manoel Island concession was granted by parliamentary resolution and both major political parties voted in favour of it back in 2000.

A proper, serious and transparent evaluation has to take place to determine whether the grounds exist for a government takeover of Manoel Island and if so, what compensation is due, if any. If such an avenue is legally or financially unfeasible, the government must extract more concessions from the developer to ensure public open spaces are safeguarded and enhanced. The voice of 29,000 people cannot be ignored.