Our investment of more than €4 million for the rehabilitation and restoration of Admiralty House is testament to our commitment to keep investing in our patrimony.

This project will see to the rehabilitation of one of the oldest buildings in our capital city, which will be serving as the location of two important offices for the justice sector. Admiralty House in our Capital’s South Street housed the former Fine Arts Museum prior to its migration to the larger and more spacious Auberge d’Italie, now better known as MUŻA.

It will host the Attorney General and the soon to be created State Attorney’s offices on separate floors once the Ministry’s Restoration Directorate completes works at hand. This relocation to Admiralty House is also part of a separate project that will see the Grandmaster's Palace fully renovated and given back to the public.

Apart from being one of the oldest buildings in Valletta, Admiralty House has an impressive history: originally a residence of several knights, by the 1820’s the palace became known as Admiralty House and was the seat of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet until 1961. The palazzo was then inaugurated as the National Museum of Fine Arts in 1974.

Works include the restoration of façades, ceiling paintings, original apertures and other historic elements in the building, the installation of mechanical and electrical services to offer the comfort and commodities of modern offices, all finishing works and furniture.

A worthy investment, envisaged to be ready by the first quarter of the coming year, enhancing the long list of others, to preserve and give a new life to our inheritance in this field.

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Writing about our cultural heritage reminds me about the fragility of these sites. That is why we are doing our utmost to preserve them but also ensuring that proper mechanisms are in place to safeguard them, also ensuring their longevity.

Take our world-renowned National gem – The Manoel Theatre. When we started an unprecedented level of restoration and renovation works in order to preserve and upgrade this oldest functioning theatre in the world, we also found that proper safety systems were practically non-existent.

This was another investment – that of €1.8 million funded through the European Regional Development Fund, and represents the largest capital injection in the last generations in this cultural gem. Apart from enhancing the patron’s and the artist’s experience, the restoration also included proper and modern installations to safeguard the theatre in case of unfortunate accidents.

Actively taking part in an Informal Meeting of EU Member States Ministers in charge of Cultural Policy, held in Paris, after the Notre Dame incident, I echoed the above.

I stressed that the tragic incident that befell the Notre Dame Cathedral on 15 April shocked not only the French people but the world at large. This national treasure, which attracts millions of people daily, is considered one of the most widely recognised symbols of the city of Paris and the French nation. 

Malta would support more cooperation in this field, particularly in terms of the necessary repository of expertise readily available in such tragic incidents. Although, thankfully, such disasters are not frequent occurrences, when they do happen, they call not only for national experts but for the world at large to ensure the very best attention and care will be given.

Exchange of good practices and pooling of expertise in this field is key, as such incidents, as scarce as they may be, can leave devastating results and in some cases, permanent damages and losses.

I strongly believe that where World Heritage sites are concerned all that need to be done to make sure of their protection should be done. One of my suggestions was that online registry could be established where each country can upload any useful lists of expertise which can be offered in case of an emergency.

Reflecting what we are doing in Malta, to make culture accessible to the younger generation and also to increase their interest in our heritage, in Paris I stressed the importance of ensuring that our youths are attracted to their heritage. We need to instil in them a sense of duty to continue to preserve their heritage and a sense of pride of being part of something bigger, something that gives us our identity. This is done by targeting our initiatives to when they are very young.

I was proud to inform all that at a national level, Malta has the Heritage Passport, which is offered to all students, enabling them to visit free of charge any heritage site or museum managed by Malta’s national agency, Heritage Malta. Furthermore, each student may opt to be accompanied by two adults who will also enter the site free of charge. This initiative has now also been extended to senior citizens.

The meeting adopted a declaration whereby the member states pledged to foster greater collaboration in order to preserve shared European heritage and better protect endangered heritage and provide Europe’s young people with greater opportunities.

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Last week we officially launched the Local Government Reform after an extensive period of consultation with all stakeholders including the Opposition, local councils, regional councils, and residents of all localities.

The 25th anniversary of local government offered the appropriate opportunity to undertake an in-depth assessment of the sector and to embark on a reform to continue with decentralisation and giving greater autonomy to our local government. An ambitious reform to continue strengthening both Local and Regional Councils, leading to a Local Government of excellence.

This Government is committed to the well-being of all sectors of our society, and this is also one of the main aims of this much needed reform.

The importance given by the Central Government to local and regional councils can be underlined by the fact that this Government allocated €3 million to the Regional Councils, and from 2013 to 2019 increased the Local Councils’ allocation by €10 million.

It is with great satisfaction that the hard work put in this reform together with colleague and Parliamentary Secretary for Local Councils Silvio Parnis, has come to fruition.