The GRTU, Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, said Malta has lost EU funds which would have paid for the paving project of Merchants Street.

It said it had long called for the pedestrianisation of Republic Street, together with St John Square and Merchants Street. When the Merchants Street development was launched it had called shopowners and created a consultative forum together with Minister Ninu Zammit and his experts to ensure that the project would be carried out in the shortest possible time.

That forum, it said, had been used by the minister just once, which resulted in everyone not being aware of what was happening. Now the minister was accusing the GRTU of not knowing what was going on, the GRTU said.

It was sure, it added, that at the end the work would be completed properly. But many had suffered for what had happened to date, especially the shopowners, who had themselves paid for the incompetence of others.

Now Malta had suffered as well, by losing EU money, due to the incompetent purchasing of the needed paving slabs by direct order. This meant Malta had lost EU money, because the EU does not pay for direct orders, the GRTU said.