Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/717204
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 21 AUGUST 2016 6 News MATTHEW AGIUS ATTARD residents have reported that excavation works at Bilom's Wied Incita quarry have reduced in intensity since MaltaToday re- ported on the plight of nearby res- idents, but so far no official reac- tion has been forthcoming about the residents' plight. The quarry became the subject of national attention after Bilom proposed the development of a 158,000 square metre industrial park for small- and medium-sized enterprises, topped by a solar farm, on the site it currently occupies. One of the quarry's neighbours had told MaltaToday last week that although quarry operations should have stopped, the noise of pneumatic drills had continued to disturb residents' repose. The premises were still guarded by a watchman and the mound of debris was growing larger, resi- dents said, and the noise and dust pollution from quarrying posed a health risk to neighbours. Yesterday, the Democratic Party (PD) backed a proposal to turn Wied Incita into an ecological park "to be enjoyed by Maltese and Gozitans alike." The party led by Marlene Far- rugia said it supports a proposal put forward by leftist organisa- tion Zmienijietna, saying that by restoring and returning Wied In- cita back to the people "this gov- ernment would be mitigating the environmental damage inflicted both by the previous administra- tion and by the current adminis- tration's poor environmental poli- cies." Farrugia's partner and Labour whip Godfrey Farrugia this week lambasted Bilom's plans. "Wied Incita has been raped by quarry owners, rendering its habitat life- less... the irregularities are well known," Farrugia, who is an MP for the constituency that includes neighbouring Zebbug, said. Bilom's proposal for the addition of a "family recreational park" was met with derision in some quar- ters, who felt it to be little more than thinly-disguised tokenism. The controversial plans have riled neighbouring residents and en- vironmental groups who fear the plans would turn the once pristine valley into a new industrial com- plex. Bilom are proposing the devel- opment of a huge industrial park for small- and medium-sized en- terprises equipped with an overly- ing solar farm over 158,000 square metres on the site currently occu- pied by the quarries. Use of the land had originally been granted for agricultural pur- poses, with the caveat that quar- rying operations may be carried out on the half of the site that is farthest from Attard, but this con- dition was later removed. Other conditions included the building of a boundary wall, the planting of 100 trees and that the land be "reclaimed into good ar- able land in areas on which quar- rying has ceased to be carried out... on any particular area measuring at least one-half tomna." The half-tomna specification was also excised at a later stage. The reclamation, reconstruction and protective works had to be carried out within three years of the cessa- tion of quarrying operations. Attard local councillor Ralph At- tard, basing himself on a 1966 con- tract which transferred the grant to Rosario Portanier, managing director of Rowey and Company Ltd, argued that the leaseholders had violated the conditions of the original contract of emphyteusis by failing to rehabilitate the quarry site. But a closer reading of the hand- written contract reveals that the government had granted the use of the 55 original tumoli, by title of temporary emphyteusis to Arturo Vella, for 99 years in 1915. The 99-year period would have ended and with it, the emphyteutical grant, in 2014. That would have left the land free to be sold into private owner- ship by the government – usually to the occupier – who would then become a full owner. This relatively common occur- rence with old emphyteutical con- cessions, would be the most likely scenario in this case and leaves a refusal of the application by the Planning Authority as the pictur- esque valley's last hope of survival. ADVOCATE Applications are invited for the post of Case Officer (State Aid) in the Ministry for the European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto. Applications will be received at the Corporate Services Directorate, Ministry for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto, 31B, Tal-Pilar, Marsamxett Road, Valletta, VLT 1850 by not later than noon of Monday, 29 th August 2016. Further details may be obtained from the Government Gazette of 12 th of August 2016. Application forms may be downloaded from: https://opm.gov.mt/en/PAHRO/RESOURCING/Pages/Forms%20and%20Templates/Forms-and- Templates.aspx Residents pin their hopes on PA to save Wied Incita IIP Malta rakes in €200 million from itinerant elites MATTHEW VELLA IN its last count, requested this week by MaltaToday since its 'investor by citizenship' programme was hauled over the coals in the international press, Identity Malta said it had booked €200 million from its pass- port sales so far. It is a remarkable figure, albeit one that so far falls well short of a pur- ported €1 billion target when Malta would have sold passports to some 1,800 members of a very liquid and mobile global elite. Despite Identity Malta's assertions of its strict due diligence process of screening applicants, there is little appetite in the rest of the EU for this sort of money-spinner. In Brussels, Politico last week led the gamut of critics of Malta's Individual Inves- tor Programme. "I am absolutely disgusted," the Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes said of the IIP. Her country also sells residence visas to investors who spend €1 million and create jobs. Gomes, also a member on the European Parliament's com- mittee tasked to analyse the fallout of the Panama Papers, said she has demanded "an investigation by the EU Commission to look into mem- ber states investor schemes, not just Malta's." It is not hard to understand why the brazen commodification of a public good like citizenship angers people. Suddenly, it becomes no longer necessary to be a taxpayer and active participant in a commu- nity because you can throw money at whatever you want. And after Luxleaks and Panama Papers, the breadth of the global rich's avarice is now being actively targeted by MEPs and European governments who want to clamp down on tax avoidance. But in Malta, the Labour govern- ment has bound itself to the great white hope of the IIP. Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat is contractually bound to speak in the international Henley roadshows (next stop, Lon- don in November, together with the President of the Republic). And Identity Malta jealously guards the identity of these onepercenters in a way that makes a mockery of good governance. A list of naturalised persons which must be published at law at the start of each year, today gets published mid-year; the surnames are not list- ed in alphabetical order, and instead it is the first names that are listed alphabetically, to make it harder to spot celebrity surnames or con- spicuous applicants who come as a family; and IIP citizens are not dis- tinguished from citizens who have been living in Malta for years before finally having been naturalised. On this, MaltaToday has filed a Freedom of Information request with Identity Malta as well as an of- ficial complaint with the Ombuds- man seeking explanations on the transparency of the scheme. Identity Malta has received 772 ap- plications since 2014 – roughly half of its expected 1,800 cap on 'investor citizens'. Identity Malta chief Jonathan Cardona adds that there has been a refusal rate of approximately 25%, a rate that could tally with previous statements from concessionaires Henley & Partners that over 1,000 applications had been received. Of those 772 applications, which have not made all applicants Mal- tese citizens, a total of 202 main ap- plicants have been fully naturalised, bringing with them 503 dependants. Cardona insists the IIP adopts a rigorous due diligence process, with security checks that involve several layers of international police and se- curity agencies. "The IIP has a dedi- cated regulator which has full access to all documentation, which is un- precedented globally," Cardona says. But what counts here is the cash. Cardona says that from all these ap- plications, Identity Malta has so far booked over €200 million, which in- cludes cash not yet disbursed since the applicants have not yet been naturalised. Of this cash, €94 million has been posted in a ring-fenced poster- ity fund which is headed by David Curmi, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce. Another €40 million has been allocated to the government's consolidated fund. A government source, who ex- pressed reservations on the way Malta's IIP gets bashed in the inter- national press, said the media looks at the prism of migration from many different angles. "The data is available to all, and in 2014 over 780,000 were granted citizenship by an EU member state. We're taken to task over a few hun- dred citizenships that have under- gone a strict due diligence process, but nothing is asked, say, of the UK, which in 2014 alone granted citizen- ship to 115,000 people."