Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/929711
maltatoday SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 News 7 Expression of Interest: Invitation to submit Proposals for the Lease of Property in Victoria, Gozo The Director General (Operations) within the Ministry for Gozo notifies that sealed expression of interest documents marked: EOI/A0118 Expression of Interest: Invitation to submit Proposals for the Lease of Property in Victoria, Gozo will be received in the tender box, situated at the Procurement Unit at the Ministry for Gozo, St. Francis Square, Victoria, Gozo, by not later than 10.00 a.m. of 6 th February 2018. Interested parties may either download a copy of the Expression of Interest document from the Ministry for Gozo website mgoz.gov.mt or request a copy by sending an email to procurement.mgoz@gov.mt clearly indicating Advert Number EOI/A0118. TIA RELJIC NEW rules will make the wearing of helmets optional, when riding motorcycles or bikes below a cer- tain speed limit. The rules are currently being drafted, Transport Malta (TM) said in response to an article published in MaltaToday on Wednesday. Existing legislation forcing all cyclists to wear a helmet were be- lieved to be stifling efforts to pro- mote the greater use of bicycles, particularly schemes related to bike-sharing, a spokesperson for Bicycle Advocacy Group Malta (BAG) said. As a result, TM is now drafting new legislation in order to "bring Malta more in line with countries where bicycles are regularly used as a commuting mode of trans- port." Currently, Malta is the only EU country which obliges all adult cyclists to wear helmets in all are- as at all times. The new legislation is a confirmation of TM's com- mitment in favour of innovation in the area of alternate modes of transport, a spokesperson for TM told MaltaToday. "Transport Malta has been at the forefront in promoting bike shar- ing, enacting legislation to make this possible and is in constant di- alogue with potential service pro- viders to make this service more popular," he said. "The Authority recognises the fact that obligatory helmets can be of hindrance to the promulgation of such initiatives." No need to register 250W e-bikes Pedelecs and e-bikes with up to 250W power drive systems do not, in fact, need to be registered. The legislation which obliges cyclists to register power-assisted pedal cycles or motorised bicycles was put into place in order to "curtail the abuse of 'home-made' motorised bikes", and not to enforce the registration of regular 250W pedelecs and e-bikes. However, the 2013 legislation does not explicitly state 'home-made' or 'irregular' motorised bicycles, lead- ing to the misunderstanding which caused the drop in sales and de- creased use of e-bikes prior to the budget announcements. "A number of individuals had re- sorted to install small fuel engines on regular bicycles, endangering themselves and other road users. The legislation was in fact very ef- fective in removing these potentially dangerous irregular bikes from our roads," the TM spokesperson said. "Pedelec and e-bike owners can ride them on our roads without reg- istering them or paying any licence fees, the same as one would with a traditional bicycle." BAG had previously announced that sales of pedelecs had dropped by 90% and that e-bike use had fallen by 85% following the 2013 leg- islation, as cyclists feared that they were required to register any man- ner of motorised and electric bicycle in order to use it. However, a spokesperson for the group did remark that announce- ments in the 2018 Budget had al- ready begun to show positive re- sults in terms of sales for e-bikes and pedelecs. Pedelecs and e-bikes with up to 250W do not need to be registered and helmets are to be made optional Bicycle helmet use to become optional under new legislation MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese Archbishop has vowed he will not carry out any "crusade" should Roman Catholi- cism be removed from the island's Constitution as the official religion of Malta. Charles Scicluna told Radju Malta host Andrew Azzopardi that the separation of church and state were positive developments for a coun- try, and that he was in favour of a level-playing field for all religions. But he said that if any constitu- tional convention had to propose the removal of Roman Catholicism from the Constitution, he would still argue whether Malta should be shorn of its religious patrimony. "If Catholicism were removed from the Constitution as official religion, the Church would live on," Scicluna said, making a rejoinder to his own theology dissertation. "My research on this matter had found that the United Kingdom had never wanted this type of decla- ration in any of the colonies' consti- tutions. The Maltese fought for this declaration, which was the first legal act of 1922 after the 1921 Constitu- tion, a unanimous declaration by the National Assembly that Malta's religion was Roman Catholicism." Since then however, Malta's inde- pendence had prevailed over what was a confrontation between the church and the colonial power. "Do we need this kind of declara- tion in the Constitution, today? No. It is a declaration of fact. What's im- portant is that all religions in Malta enjoy freedom of belief. "I am comfortable with our religion being on the same level as other re- ligions. This is the kind of liberty I insist upon. It is not status that gives one relevance. It is the people that make one relevant, for example, by their insistence on sending children to church schools, a demand so large we cannot cater for it today." But Scicluna said that in the even- tuality of any convention that pro- poses the removal of religion from the Constitution, he would argue if proponents were ready to "remove this religious heritage which is so much part of our DNA. Because it would mean removing every single religious expression in state and public events. "But it would be no crusade: these are certainly not the times for any crusade." Scicluna indeed said no church should have any role of power in the affairs of a state, in an argument he made against theocracies. "I have no such nostalgia for that," he said in a reference to the Maltese church's former influence on state affairs. "The church-state separa- tion is a positive development and I believe it is good that Malta is a secular country." Scicluna said clerical predecessors like the formidable Michael Gonzi and Mgr Enrico Dandria hailed from a generation of clerics who had been granted power to par- ticipate in political life through the 1870 referendum. Both Gonzi and Dandria were MPs in the 1920s. "It was a generation of clerics who were protagonists against the colo- nial government. After independ- ence in 1964, Archbishop Gonzi's mindset then was still that of the former senator and archbishop elected under a colonial govern- ment. It was a frame of mind for him." 'Church won't carry out crusade against removal of Catholicism from Constitution' Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna says all religions should enjoy the liberty and freedom of belief in a secular state Archbishop Charles Scicluna has said he is not out on a crusade