Travelling at times may come with some unexpected and unpleasant  surprises such as losing your passport. This is quite a headache especially when travelling out of the EU. New rules adopted by the European Parliament will make it easier and safer if you lose your passport, or if it is stolen or damaged when travelling outside of the EU. Thanks to new measures adopted it will be easier for you to acquire temporary documents from any EU Member State’s Consulate in a shorter period.

Member States’ diplomatic services will increase cooperation to ensure that no EU citizen is refused temporary travel documentation to get to their final destination. This is of utter importance, especially when you cannot acquire help from your own national embassy. This temporary document will be valid for a maximum of 15 days, and can also be used to travel back home. The procedure of verifying the applicant’s identity should not take longer than four days.

The new legislation also increases security measures in the European emergency travel documents which remain unsecured making them much safer and thus offer protection against fraud and counterfeit. This will improve the fight against human trafficking and instil more trust in such documents. This is another clear example of how the EU makes a difference in our lives beyond politics, even in terms of our leisure. 

Corinthia deal

Over the Christmas period we learnt that the government is planning to give public land to the Corinthia group, for a price way below commercial values. This is just one other example of how the government is not respecting people. This land that the government wants to give to the Corinthia group is public land, meaning it is ours. It is a prime touristic area which is being given away for a  ridiculously cheap price. Konrad Mizzi wants to give away this public land, valued at 800 million euro, for only 51 million. Given the difference in price, it shows that something very wrong has happened. This leaves us with no level playing field because potential competitors will find that they are not afforded the same preferential terms to the extent that possible state aid implications have also been raised.

As former Minister for Tourism, I do recall that previous PN administrators have given land for touristic purposes so as to promote and develop tourism further whilst also creating more jobs for the people of Malta and Gozo. I have nothing against Corinthia that served as a flagship for our tourism industry, however our land is being given away for too low a price and Corinthia will be able to use most of this land for real estate which makes the situation much worse. We are losing and giving away land, which we know is becoming more and more scarce.  

Right now, young people are seeking to buy their first property, and they are simply not coping given the rise in prices. Many are not even managing to rent out a place let alone buy property. Now we have land being given at a scandalous and so cheap price to the few.  I was wondering whether likewise, these young people would be given the opportunity to buy their property for a similarly highly subsidised price!

Furthermore, citizens such as residents from Xaghra have already expressed concerns on land reclamation. Do we want to create a precedent without even discussing the matter and make relevant studies on the impact of land reclamation or before we assess other options?

Let us not forget that this deal was announced during the Christmas festivities when people tend to be alienated. Thanks to PN this deal did not achieve clearance in a parliamentary sub-committee overnight as the government attempted to do. This land is not owned by the government, but it belongs to the people. We will continue to defend your rights and seek the truth.

Give us back our hospitals

Many of you might have heard that yet another hush deal was done in Malta.  Steward Heathcare and Vitals Healthcare signed an agreement where they will be transferring their concession of 3 public hospitals for only 1 euro.

Rather than focusing on delivering the concession over the three public hospitals in Malta, Vitals Healthcare preferred to milk the concession and expand to other countries with the use of your tax money. In the mean time they used the concession in Malta as a selling point to other governments. Whilst negotiating bail from Malta, they were signing agreements in other countries.

Moreover, they decided to branch out in other areas. Such as using 5.14 million euro to take over the medical supplier Technoline, giving themselves exclusivity of supply.  That will also mean no more tenders for the supply of all medical equipment and other supplies. That will also mean commissions over and above commissions. Can you make one guess why all this is happening?

Vitals Group Healthcare received around 50 million euro in taxpayers’ money, to build a network of companies and make it global. 

Steward Healthcare only paid 1 euro for all of Vital Global Healthcare shares and concessions over 3 hospitals: St Luke’s Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and Gozo Hospital. This is not the only thing they agreed on, other repayments, settlement agreements and termination contracts have been done which results in others benefiting from the sale. As an example, a company in Dubai acquired 1.4 million euro whilst an unknown investor, Samuel Luft got 1.85 million euro. This deal is rotten to the core.  Rightly so, the independent press has asked questions but instead was cyber-attacked in return.  

The Government cannot escape such another massive scandal and questions cannot go unanswered. What is baffling is the fact that whilst the government has spared 50 million Euros to Vitals group, it has yet to find enough funds to provide continuous glucose monitors to type 1 diabetics.  It seems that the government needs to get its priorities in order. Indeed what are its priorities? 

Once again you are invited to make one guess. 

@FrancisZD [email protected]