WATCH | Abela on Manoel Island: ‘Eddie Fenech Adami gifted it to friends, I now have to sort out the mess’

Prime Minister Robert Abela has come out against the MIDI consortium, saying he has now been tasked with solving the problem Eddie Fenech Adami created.

“The concession in 2000 was granted to donors of the Nationalist Party. Prime property in Tigné and Manoel Island for peanuts,” Abela told journalists on Wednesday.

Speaking about the ongoing Manoel Island saga, Abela was adamant that the concession, granted by former Nationalist Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami’s administration, was of no benefit to the Maltese people. He also announced Labour backbencher Edward Zammit Lewis and PL President Alex Sciberras have been roped in to analyse the concession for possible breaches.

Significantly, Sciberras had signed the Manoel Island petition for the island to be returned back to the public, and Zammit Lewis took a critical stance on the concession.

If there is a breach of the concession agreement, the consortium will have to pay the price. Robert Abela

“Go look at Tigné Point and the sprawling development there. Do you think that concession was done in the interests of the Maltese and Gozitan people?” he told journalists. “It is now up to me to find a solution so the interests of those 30,000 petition signatories, and the Maltese and Gozitan people, are protected.”

Abela, a former legal advisor for the Planning Authority under the Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat administrations, said he was the only one to stand up to the consortium back in his days as lawyer.

“Let me be clear no one stood up to them. The consortium did as it pleased; just look at how it amended the master plan as it wished,” Abela said. “With me they will not do as they please, and that is why next Friday I will be meeting representatives of the petition, and then I will speak with representatives of MIDI's 5,000 bondholders and small shareholders.”

READ ALSO | Beppe Fenech Adami: ‘Prime Minister should concentrate on cleaning up his own mess’

Recently, Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis insisted government should not be the one to honour or guarantee private bonds. Zammit Lewis said while it is important to listen to everyone, it would set an "ugly precedent" if the government were to act as guarantor for private bond holders.

Abela announced Zammit Lewis has been roped in to assist the Office of the Prime Minister in analysing the concession agreement.

He went on to say the Labour Party President Alex Sciberras, one of the petition’s signatories, has also been asked to help analyse the concession details.

The prime minister said a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday discussed the Manoel Island concession, and a Labour parliamentary group meeting will also be discussing the matter in the coming days.

“If there is a breach of the concession agreement, the consortium will have to pay the price,” Abela insisted.

The petition, launched by the campaign Manoel Island: Post Għalina—led by Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar—has collected over 29,000 signatures. Activists argue that Malta has changed dramatically since the concession was granted 25 years ago and that Manoel Island should be returned to the public as a green space, rather than a luxury development zone.

At the core of the agreement was the restoration of Fort Manoel (which has been completed) and the construction of residential and commercial buildings, which have yet to begin.

Earlier on Wednesday, Opposition leader Bernard Grech shifted his tone and backed calls for Manoel Island to be turned into a national park.

Grech said the March 2026 deadline for completing the controversial project is a perfect opportunity to change course and preserve the island as a green public space.

READ ALSO | Environmental NGOs welcome shifts in stance on Manoel Island