Ian Borg ‘little king in a feudal system’, NGOs file protest over Miżieb

A group of eight NGOs has filed a judicial protest against Transport minister Ian Borg, Lands and Construction Parliamentary secretary Chris Agius and the Lands Authority, requesting them to cease and desist from gifting swathes of the countryside to the FKNK hunting organisation.

The plaintiffs, the Ramblers Association, BirdLife Malta, Din L-Art Helwa, Moviment Graffitti, Friends of the Earth Malta, Nature Trust, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar and the Bicycle Advocacy Group, as well as Dr Edward Mallia and lawyers Chritine Bellizzi and Claire Bonello, expressed outrage at the agreement reached with the FKNK.

On 7 October this year, news reports announcing the transfer of large parts of Aħrax in Mellieha and Miżieb were to be transferred to the FKNK under some form of concession, reads the protest, noting that the FKNK had gone so far as to invite the Mellieha local council to attend a ceremony marking the signing of the agreement of the land in question.

Minister Ian Borg had told the media that the deal was on and this because “there is a letter by [former] Prime Minister Mifsud Bonnici, that one needs to formalise.” He added that the FKNK had been chosen to receive the massive concession  because “they had been chosen in the 1980s and had done a good job”.

Borg had also said that the areas would be closed to the public during the hunting season. “What he failed to explain is that there are several hunting seasons which effectively extend up to nine months of the year,” added the NGOs.

The decision to transfer the lands was done unilaterally, opaquely and in secret, said the organisations, without any respect towards the rights of the citizen to be informed that public land would be used in such a manner.

No public consultation or call for proposals was made, making it a discriminatory and illegal act under EU directives.

The NGOs accused Borg and Agius as acting like “little kings in a feudal system instead of a democratic country under the rule of law.”

The generous concession breached every principle of good governance and was done ultra vires (in excess of their powers) because it was done abusively, for unjustified reasons based on irrelevant considerations.

Lawyer Claire Bonello, signing the protest requested that the defendants desist from entering into any form of arrangment or agreement with any entity without the protection of the law and the principles of natural justice and third party rights.