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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 7 MARCH 2018 News 2 UNCONSTITUTIONAL 1979 RENT LAW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Maltese courts have also declared the law to be unconstitutional. Azzopardi was addressing the House of Representatives on the draft amendment Bill to the Civil Code. "This Government is indiffer- ent to the wounds of those be- ing evicted from their homes because of the illegal law intro- duced by the socialist govern- ment of the 1970s… the institu- tional omertà on this matter is scary. The Government is refus- ing to talk about this because it does not want to resolve the problem." Two years ago Azzopardi laid 258 court sentences dealing with the unconstitutionality of Malta's rental laws, handed down by the courts over a pe- riod of seven years. "The minister laughed at me back then. Since then three years have passed and nothing happened… he said the Attor- ney General was working on a draft law and a social impact assessment was being carried out. What happened since then? Nothing." The law found to be uncon- stitutional by the Maltese con- stitutional court is the Housing Decontrol Ordinance (1959), af- ter the court found that Article 12(2) – which allows a tempo- rary emphyteusis [Maltese: cens temporanju] to be converted into a permanent rental agree- ment – was "inconsistent" with the European Convention of Human Rights. Specifically, the Civil Code gives landlords the right to re- claim their property upon ter- mination of a lease. But in 1979, the government passed a law to protect tenants so that – under the Housing De- control Ordinance – any lease of up to 30 years contracted be- fore 21 June 1979, can be turned into a rent. Azzopardi accused the Gov- ernment of having thought nothing of giving people like property developer Mark Gaffa- rena €5 million or €4 million to the Café Premier leaseholders. "A government whose high officials opened secret Panama companies just 48 hours after being elected to power, thinks nothing of workers' families, of elderly tenants and pension- ers who are being evicted from their homes. Obviously there are no commissions to be made from solving these social prob- lems, so it looks the other way." Azzopardi said that in Janu- ary 2018, the most recent case against Malta in the European Court of Human Rights found the Maltese state guilty and fined €180,000 even when the applicants themselves had ac- quired a property with tenants protected by the 1979 law. "It's a decision that embarrass- es a supposedly Labour govern- ment which is indeed a 'cham- pagne socialist' government, generous with the rich and the elite, and miserly with the poor, a neoliberal administration that has sold its principals to the ma- terialist god where money is an end in itself." Bolstered by the ECHR rul- ing in the Amato Gauci case, which found that Maltese law breached fundamental rights by forcibly subjecting land- lords to a tenant relationship without their consent, prop- erty owners are trying to re- claim their properties. The Maltese courts have al- ready dished out decisions that reflect the spirit of the Amato Gauci ruling. Significantly it was a constitutional ruling that upheld previous decisions that a tenant, Carmel Camilleri, could not keep availing himself of this law to rent a property at just Lm90 (€225) a year, after the lease terminated in 1991. Originally, Bartolomeo and Giuseppa Bezzina had leased out their Gharghur property to Camilleri in 1974 for a period of 17 years. In 1991, Camilleri availed himself of the right ac- corded by the Housing Decon- trol Ordinance, to keep rent- ing the house he leased, with a marginal increase in the annual rent. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Tenants whose protection under unconstitutional 1979 amendments is threatened are being ignored, PN MP claims YANNICK PACE FORMER Enemalta CEO Freder- ick Azzopardi will be taking up the role of CEO of the new road agency being set up by the Gov- ernment, while current Trans- port Malta chairman and CEO James Piscopo will be taking up the role of non-executive chair- man, the transport ministry has said. The agency is being set up by the Government to enact its electoral pledge of redoing all of Malta's roads over a period of seven years with an investment of €700 million. "Mr. James Piscopo and Ing. Fredrick Azzopardi have been offered to serve the position of a Non-executive Chairperson and a Chief Executive Officer respectively," a spokesperson for the ministry told MaltaToday. The spokesperson said that a board of directors would for- mally be appointed once the law has been passed. "The ministry's plan is to di- vulge more information to me- dia in the coming weeks, specifi- cally about the setting up of the Agency, its role, how it will be functioning with all related en- tities and stakeholders, amongst other information," they said. Both Azzopardi and Piscopo confirmed they had been ap- proached when contacted. Azzopardi was most recently the CEO of Enemalta, a post he held since 2013. During his time as CEO, Azzopardi oversaw the signing of a €320 million deal that sold off a 33% stake to Shanghai Electric Power and the conversion of the BWSC plant to gas. During his tenure the state- owned energy company went from making a loss to turning a profit. He confirmed that he would "eventually" be taking up the role of CEO once the necessary legislation has been approved by parliament in a "few weeks' time". Piscopo said he had confirmed his availability to the ministry, noting that as chairman and CEO of transport Malta, he had overseen and delivered impor- tant projects including the Kap- para Project and Coast Road, as well as "various other road in- frastructure projects". Speaking at the inauguration of the Kappara Junction in Janu- ary, Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat hailed the work undertaken by Transport Malta as well as Piscopo, who, he said, had been one of the main driving forces behind the agency. The new agency will have its own technical and human re- sources, and would be draw- ing upon human resources at Transport Malta's Roads and In- frastructure Directorate which would be incorporated in this new entity with the same exist- ing terms and conditions. The agency will also be assum- ing new responsibilities such as road infrastructure, which to date has fallen within the remit of local councils. Former Enemalta chief to head roads agency Engineer Frederick Azzopardi will be responsible for overseeing the Government's pledge to redo all of Malta's roads Frederick Azzopardi James Piscopo MASSIMO COSTA THE Government is com- mitted to finding a balance between the rights of tenants living in old properties, who were previously protected from being evicted due to the 1979 rent law – which was found to be unconstitu- tional – and the rights and interests of landlords who expect to charge a fair rent, justice minister Owen Bon- nici said. Under the 1979 rent law, a temporary emphyteusis is automatically converted into a permanent rental agree- ment, but this was found to be illegal by both the Mal- tese Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Bonnici said that when it came to tenants risking being evicted due to the Courts' rulings, the Govern- ment was internally discuss- ing and scrutinising each case attentively. The justice minister was replying in parliament to comments made by PN MP Jason Azzopardi, accusing the government of ignoring the problem of tenants who were constantly worried they would end up on the streets due to the law which had been drawn up by the 1970s' socialist government. "Azzopardi wants to cause alarm by saying people will end up without a place to live," he said, "The PN had been in government for 25 years – if there is a 'quick fix' to the issue, Azzopardi could have done it himself when he was lands minister." He emphasised that the Government had been fol- lowing all developments on a local and European level re- garding the issue, including judgments by the ECHR. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt Balance needed between rights of tenants and landlords' interests, Bonnici says Owen Bonnici