Comino visitor fee to help pay for Blue Lagoon works, Abela says

Updated at 9:30pm with reaction from Opposition Leader Alex Borg

The second phase of beautification works at the Blue Lagoon will start soon, helped by the fee tourists pay to visit Comino, Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced.

"The increase in the eco-contribution will be invested in services, and we will give more power to local councils in tourist areas to use the funds," Abela said in Parliament on Tuesday evening.

The fee tourists pay to visit Comino, he said, "will help finance the investment in the beautification we are doing at the Blue Lagoon, where we will soon launch the second phase of works".

Abela spoke during the reply to the Budget 2027, which Finance Minister Clyde Caruana presented last week. He was replying to Opposition Leader Alex Borg, who delivered the Opposition's replica speech on Monday evening.

Abela described the budget as “the only progressive budget in the European Union”. He then mentioned a €100 million increase in social benefits, excluding pensions, and €100 million of investment in the digital sector.

Abela said money collected from cruise liner tourists would help set up a new foundation for Valletta. The foundation will bring together the local council and a number of other entities, so that work to maintain and protect the capital is better coordinated.

He also announced that the Gozo ferry service will be free from 1 January for all Maltese and Gozitan passengers who cross on foot.

"In this way we will have fulfilled another important pledge of the electoral manifesto," he said. The measure also extends to European Union citizens resident in Malta and to people with long-term status.

On Monday, Borg said the Opposition accepts a fair tourism contribution but would apply the €8 a night hotel tax and €10 short-let tax only from May to October. He also said he wanted the higher ferry fares reconsidered.

Abela said the budget allocates a record €141 million to Għawdex, almost two and a half times what the Opposition invested when in government. The fast ferry, launched in 2020, now runs longer hours.

The process for a fourth vessel is nearing its close and is in its final adjudication stage. A prequalification questionnaire (PQQ) will be launched by the last quarter of this year so that the ferry operator can build new vessels that it will own.

On tourism, Abela said Delta Airlines began flying from New York this summer, and talks are closing to continue the route next year. Qatar Airways will resume flights to Malta from March, giving access to its global network.

He said the government had also managed to turn its attention to attracting tourists from other quality countries after the United States.

Abela said the government would keep the energy subsidies, which cost €392 million this year, with another €400 million set aside for next year, about €800 million over two years. "The subsidies, as many as there were, are still there, and for as long as we keep governing they will stay," he said.

On the grid, Abela said a second interconnector between Malta and Ragusa will start working in the first quarter of next year. He also said 15 new distribution centres will be built.

Abela said the super bonus is €1,000 a year, not taxable. He said he was pleased to see Borg agree with it, though Borg still said he would vote against.

On Manoel Island, the prime minister said the government had decided "in favour of the people" and brought it back. An extensive clean-up has started to improve access and let the public enjoy the park in a cleaner, safer setting, including the coast.

He said the government will change planning laws so that parks it has designated, such as White Rocks and Manoel Island, cannot be undesignated.

Abela also announced that Lufthansa Technik will open its fourth hangar in Malta, which will let it work on almost every type of commercial aircraft.

Abela said public debt stood at 47% of the economy, among the lowest in the European Union. He said growth is projected at 4% a year and the deficit stayed under 3%. Capital spending, at €1.5 billion, was the largest in Malta's history, he said.

Abela said the manifesto's goal is to improve people's quality of life by 25% over five years. He said the government would study how the budget measures feed into the Well-being Index with Minister Omar Farrugia.

On workers from outside Europe, Abela said the debate must be held "with maturity and responsibility, without any disparaging words".

He said the government's labour migration policy aims to cut worker turnover and keep workers longer. The gap between the fee for a new work permit and for a renewal has been kept, in line with that aim.

He repeated the claim at the end of his speech, saying the government had made “the only progressive budget in Europe”. He listed the super bonus, higher pensions, lower company tax and free therapy for children with a disability, and urged people to leave the worries about the international storm to the government.

“I give you my word that everything we promised we will carry out, all of it, whatever happens and whatever happens beyond our shores,” Abela said.

Borg says Abela gave social partners no reassurance 

Speaking outside Parliament after Abela's address to the House on Tuesday evening, Borg said most of the prime minister's speech was an attack on the Opposition and on the past, rather than a look forward.

Abela gave the social partners no reassurance, Borg said, despite the concerns they had raised with him.

Borg said Abela claims productivity is rising, “but at the same time we know that the government’s own numbers are telling us another story”. The social partners’ numbers also tell a different story, he said.

Abela left the Opposition “without an answer”, Borg said, on how to ease the traffic problem. The same went for overpopulation, for how to strengthen the country’s infrastructure and for how to strengthen the well-being index.

Borg said the Labour Party’s electoral manifesto at the last general election “was based almost entirely on the wellbeing index”. Yet in Finance Minister Clyde Caruana’s budget speech last Monday, he said, there was “not a word on the wellbeing index”.

“We are not going to keep talking about division; we talk about unity,” Borg said. He said people want to see an Opposition, “an alternative government”, that offers solutions to the country’s big challenges.

“Instead of pitting Maltese against Maltese, or business owner against worker, we want to sit down with them at the same table,” he said.

Together with the social partners, he said, the Opposition would find the best solutions to the country’s challenges. From these it would build an alternative and create new opportunities for all.