Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/665749
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 13 APRIL 2016 News IN ALL LEADING BOOK SHOPS HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN MALTA Gozo tunnel movement wants project up and running by 2028 TIM DIACONO FRONT Favur il-Mina warns Gozo risks losing its identity and turning into a retirement home if a tunnel is not constructed soon between the island and Malta Gozo risks turning into a retire- ment island if a tunnel is not built soon between it and Malta, the group campaigning for the project has warned. "We are in a race against time," Gozitan law student Jonathan Mintoff told MaltaToday. "Gozo's population is declining and busi- ness on the island is suffering, due to its poor accessibility." He noted that there is only one shop in his own home village of Ghasri, that caters for the village's 300 or so mostly elderly residents. "A trip from Helsinki to St Pe- tersburg by train these days lasts two hours…that's around the same time it takes to travel from Mgarr to the centre of Malta." Mintoff, along with fellow Gozi- tan students Beppe Galea and Car- la Galea, set up the 'Front Favur il- Mina' late last year to campaign in favour of the tunnel proposal. Although both government and Opposition have backed the pro- ject, the students are not resting on their laurels and have warned that time is of the essence. The reason is that the three Gozo ferries will eventually wear out and will have to be decommissioned by 2030 at the latest, according to projections by economist Gordon Cordina. Cordina conservatively predicts that the replacement will cost around €120 million, with mainte- nance and fuel costs estimated at a further €21 million per year. "The tunnel will cost around €300 million and will have a life- time of around 100 years, so it will be more financially sustainable than the Gozo Channel in the long- term," Mintoff said. "However, it must be up and running before the ferries are decommissioned, ide- ally in twelve years at the latest. "Given that the project is expect- ed to take between seven and ten years to build, we are still in time, but only just. It's a ticking time- bomb…" The Front Favur il-Mina will hold a national conference in Mgarr on Saturday, in which they will urge the government to com- mission geological, environmental impact and social impact studies on the feasibility of the tunnel as soon as possible. "Unfortunately, government has been dragging its feet on commis- sioning such studies," Galea said. "It certainly seems like a viable project – there are 25 sub-seabed tunnels in Norway after all – but what's the point of speculating without any concrete data?" Gozo's population is officially es- timated at 37,000, but the Gozitan students warned that this figure includes people with Gozitan ID cards who live in Malta and that the island's population is closer to 15-20,000 people. They poured cold water over criticism that a tunnel would deal a blow to Gozo's individual identity and charm. "Gozo has already lost its iden- tity, through the constant brain- drain of its workers and graduates to Malta," Beppe Galea said. "Gozo is slowly but surely changing for the worse, and we want to turn the wheel around." Similarly, Carla Galea insisted that Gozo will maintain its unique identity post-tunnel and will not become an appendage of Malta. "Gozo is currently a shadow of Malta. It will remain an island af- ter the tunnel is built, but simply become a more accessible one." "Time is money, and time wasted travelling on the ferry everyday could be time spent to invest in the company," she added, noting that Cordina's study estimates a tunnel to slash the journey time between the two islands by around 45 min- utes. The students suggested that the project be financed through a pub- lic-private partnership, with a pri- vate company operating the bridge and charging vehicle-specific tolls. "4.6 million passengers trav- elled on the Gozo Channel in 2014, compared to 4.2 million who travelled via the airport that same year," Mintoff pointed out. "Besides, although the tunnel is of- ten considered a Gozitan project, it is estimated to boost the entire country's GDP by around €20 mil- lion." What about the distant future? Do the students envisage a tunnel connecting the Maltese Islands to Sicily and mainland Europe? "Never say never," Mintoff laughed. "The possibilities are endless…" Front Favur il-Mina's national conference will take place from 9am-12pm at the Grand Hotel in Mgarr. Guest speakers will include Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, Gozo Business Chamber president Michael Grech, Gozo Tourism Au- thority chief executive Joe Muscat, Gozo Channel chairman Joe Cor- dina, sociologist Godfrey Baldac- chino, engineer Simon Mizzi and geologist Peter Gatt. tdiacono@mediatoday.com.mt Bartolo to vote for government in vote of no confidence CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Highlight- ing Labour's values of justice, fis- cal morality, freedom and dignity, Bartolo said "if it were me, I would never have anything to do with ju- risdictions like Panama…there are laws for gods and laws for animals, are we animals?" Whilst praising Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for showing "an ad- mirable sense of fair play and pru- dence" in how he handled news of Mizzi's Panamanian company and offshore trust, the Labour MEP criticised Mizzi for placing the onus on Muscat. In reply to a Facebook post by the Foundation for Social Welfare Ser- vices CEO Alfred Gritxi, in which the former ETC chairman said that "the Prime Minister spoke and eve- rybody should shut up," the minis- ter reiterated that he will vote for government in Monday's vote of no confidence tabled by the opposi- tion. Confirming his loyalty towards Muscat, Bartolo said his only inten- tion was to help the Prime Minister and not to "add to his problems." On Thursday, the embattled en- ergy minister that he was "serene and happy," and refuted suggestions that he had committed anything wrong by opening an offshore com- pany in Panama. Sant argued that what should have been a clear and inevitable decision should have never been placed on Muscat. "In his personal and political in- terest, in the interest of his family, of the Labour Party and the govern- ment and in the national interest, Mizzi's honourable decision is to resign as soon as possible," the for- mer Labour prime minister said. Sant went on to add that Mizzi would then be in a better position to defend his name and his honour. The group of students, backed by both parties in parliament argues that a tunnel will throw a lifeline to a waning Gozo MEPs approve resolution on legal migration A centralised asylum system would allow the EU to better manage flows of migrants and asylum seek- ers, the European Parliament said yesterday. In a non-binding resolution, MEPs acknowledge the failure of the EU asylum system to cope with ever- rising numbers of migrant arrivals and call for a radical overhaul of the so-called Dublin rules. They pro- pose establishing a central system for collecting and allocating asylum applications. The scheme, which could include a quota for each EU member state, would work on the basis of "hotspots" from which ref- ugees would be distributed. The resolution, drafted by Rob- erta Metsola and Kashetu Kyenge, was approved by 459 votes to 206, with 52 abstentions. The European Commission is currently considering a revi- sion of the Dublin III Regulation (which determines which member state is responsible for processing which asylum application) and has pledged to present a legislative pro- posal before the summer. "There is no quick fix for migra- tion, no magic silver bullet. We do not need more emergency solutions, we need a sustainable approach for the future", said Ms Metsola during the plenary debate. "Migration should not be combat- ted, it should be managed", added Ms Kyenge, insisting that the Euro- pean approach should be based on solidarity and responsibility shar- ing.Parliament underlines that the current asylum system does not take proper account of the particu- lar migratory pressures faced by member states with EU external borders. MEPs demand changes to ensure fairness and shared respon- sibility, solidarity and swift pro- cessing of applications. The text calls on member states to fulfil their obligations with re- gard to urgent relocation measures, stressing that so far, only a minimal part of the 106,000 asylum seekers awaiting reassignment from Italy and Greece to other EU countries had actually been relocated. On resettlement, MEPs insist that the EU needs a "binding and manda- tory legislative approach". MEPs demand new EU-wide "readmis- sion" (return) agreements which they say should take precedence over bilateral ones between mem- ber states and third countries. They insist that migrants should be re- turned only if the country to which they are being returned to is safe for them.