Confectioneries get extension on alcohol licence decision
The Chamber of SMEs is insisting a new law to demand confectioneries to drop their alcohol licence if they want to stay open after 9pm, is unjust.
The finance ministry has consented to a request by the GRTU to extend the breathing time for shops to decide on whether they will retain an alcohol licence – and adhered to specific conditions of sale – or to forgo the licence, until 15 June.
“This is still an anomalous legal notice that reduced the rights these shopkeepers have. Government has no right, if not by court order, to simply legislate against retailers selling alcohol. It’s a mistaken law and must be amended forthright,” the GRTU said.
The new rules governing the sale of alcohol in confectioneries were dubbed “draconian” by the GRTU, which are saying the law unjustly affects those confectioneries in other parts of Malta and Gozo which have had no effect on other bars and clubs. “The problem emanated from a handful of confectioneries that sold alcohol in main entertainment areas… ” the GRTU said.
“It’s not correct that rules governing confectioneries are changed overnight,” the GRTU said over the rules conditioning such retailers to choose to be either 24-hour confectioneries that do not sell alcohol, or keep their alcohol licence but close at 9pm.
So called ‘bottle shops’ in St Julian’s represented a source of concern from bars and clubs in the area which claimed they were being ‘undercut’ by cheap alcohol prices, to be consumed out on the street before entering Paceville establishments – themselves already bound by high compliance standards to operate as bars.
This led to a bye-law from the St Julian’s local council outlawing drinking of alcohol in glass containers in several designated streets; and recently new trading laws that bound confectioneries to close at 9pm if they are to sell alcohol.
Additionally, alcohol sold between 9pm-4am for consumption on premises could only take place in licensed clubs, wedding halls, and commercial premises licensed by MTA as “catering establishments where the primary purpose is the sale of food and alcoholic beverages to be consumed on the premises.”
And the sale of alcohol by street hawkers – also targeted for setting up ‘shop’ on the margins of concert venues or mega-parties – was outlawed in the last trading law amendments.
The Prime Minister has reportedly disagreed with new legal amendments the GRTU have proposed, namely to have local councils pass their own by-laws designating whether confectioneries selling alcohol should be allowed to open after 9pm.
The Chamber said it informed the Prime Minister and parliamentary secretaries for tourism and lands Mario de Marco and Jason Azzopardi of solutions that would prevent such confectioneries from selling alcohol to underage consumers and other restrictions after 9pm.