Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1419860
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 OCTOBER 2021 NEWS Our new direct phone numbers Please note our new phone numbers when calling our hospitals and corporate office. Steward Health Care Malta Corporate Office 2344 5000 Gozo General Hospital 2344 6000 Karin Grech Hospital 2344 1000 Cushioning surge in energy prices could cost €196 million KURT SANSONE SOFTENING the blow of high energy and fuel prices next year could cost the country a whop- ping €195.5 million, according to the budget estimates. The amount is equivalent to 1.4% of the country's GDP. Energy costs across Europe are rising and forecasts for next year paint a glum picture as tight gas supplies are pushing consumer prices up. Malta has so far escaped the impact because of a fixed-price agreement Enemalta has with Electrogas for the supply of liquefied natural gas. But this five-year agreement expires in April, effectively ending Mal- ta's insulation from market volatility. The prospect of higher elec- tricity and fuel prices looms large on the horizon but Fi- nance Minister Clyde Carua- na has pledged to cushion the blow. In last Monday's budget, he said government is prepared to increase next year's deficit by 1.4% to 7% to make good for higher energy and fuel prices. Electricity prices in Mal- ta have remained stable since 2014, while the State-owned Enemed, which enjoys a qua- si-monopoly in the fuel sector, has left the prices of petrol and diesel static since June 2020. But things may change and Enemalta has already scaled back the use of the intercon- nector to purchase electricity from mainland Europe because of higher prices on offer. The matter is of concern at EU level since energy infla- tion could threaten the fragile post-COVID recovery. Last Wednesday, the Euro- pean Commission outlined measures that could be used to combat surging energy prices and said it would explore joint gas purchasing to cushion the spike. Across the EU gas prices have stifled industrial production and forced household heating bills up. Some EU countries have adopted emergency meas- ures such as cutting energy taxes and providing subsidies for low-income households to cushion the blow. EU leaders are expected to discuss methods to tackle ener- gy issues at a summit later this month. control of this foundation to a layman. In previous court cases defend- ed by the Curia against Stagno Navarra's claims, the archdio- cese's lawyers had successfully shown that the Holy See's per- mission was required on on any ecclesiastical foundation such as the Navarra foundation. But Bonnici told the Court that the Curia's new stance in its deal with Carravan was that it no longer recognised the Navarra foundation as an eccle- siastical foundation. "No transfer of property took place… that €200,000 was not a 'price' for the land, but for the pious obligations due to admin- ister the foundation." Archbishop Charles Scicluna has now been called to testify in a court case in Gozo. His re- quest to testify by video-confer- ence was refused by the court. Scicluna has also refused to answer questions from Malta- Today as to why he consented that Carravan's lawyer Peter Valentino be appointed rector of the Abbazia, when the late Archbishop Giuseppe Mercie- ca, his predecessor, had refused to appoint layman Richard Stagno Navarra as rector of the Abbazia. The defendants fighting Car- ravan's claims insist that, in the Church's long drawn-out case against Richard Stagno Navarra, the Abbazia was considered an ecclesiastical foundation, where changes to the way it is admin- istered also require the consent of the Holy See. In court, Ray Bonnici suggest- ed that the Church had decided it would no longer consider the foundation to be ecclesiastical, and that the 2013 court ruling had considered the Abbazia to be a lay foundation even though it gave the power to the Arch- bishop to nominate the rector of his choice. Bonnici could not explain why the Curia had elected itself the power to no longer consider the Abbazia an "ecclesiastical" enti- ty. "We considered the new cir- cumstances, we saw the court sentence, we examined once again the foundation deed, which contains certain doubts, and saw that the only interest the Church could have on prop- erty that does not belong to it, is the execution of the pious obli- gations, so we came to this deal for €200,000." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt TIMELINE After the death in 1989 of the priest Severino Bianco, who administered the Abbazia's properties, Richard Stagno Navarra requested that the Curia appoint him as the rec- tor of the Abbazia, claiming he was a suitable descend- ant of the noblewoman Cos- mana Navarra, who created the Abbazia as a foundation (or benefice, also called a Gi- uspatronato) to manage her properties. The Maltese archdiocese was in court right up until 2013 contesting the right of Stag- no Navarra to be recognised as the 'rector' of the Abbazia. Undeterred, Stagno Navar- ra was leasing the land to Berrachimp Ltd, a company owned by Dennis Montebel- lo. In 1992, the then-magis- trate Carol Peralta decreed in an unprecedented 24-hour decision without notifica- tion to the Curia, that Stagno Navarra could be recognised as the Abbazia's rector. That decision was only finally overturned upon appeal in 2013. But under Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Mal- tese church has taken a dif- ferent tack on the Abbazia. It viewed with favour Carravan Ltd's (a company owned by the Stagno Navarras, Mon- tebello, and former Gozo archdiocese lawyer Carmelo Galea) request to relinquish control to a lay person of their choice, the lawyer Pe- ter Valentino. For this, Carra- van paid €200,000 in Febru- ary 2017. The €200,000 are supposed to be used by the Church to fulfil pious acts in the name of Cosmana Navarra, as re- quested in the Abbazia foun- dational deed. Since 2017, the Abbazia has been transferring lands in- side the Qala development zone to Carravan – specifi- cally a 23,000 square metre piece of land at Ghar-Boffa, for the annual concession of €43,000. Another 28,000 sq.m tract at Tas-Sajtun was also transferred on an annu- al concession of €35,000. These are being developed by J. Portelli projects.