‘Even if you win the appeal, we will not issue permit’ – Trade Department director to Naxxar trade fair organisers

This ruling is currently subject to an appeal by the office of the Attorney General; but in an interview with MaltaToday on Sunday (18 July), Anthony Galea, President of the Trade Fairs Exhibitors’ Association (TFEA), claims to have been told point-blank by the Director of Trade Services, Brian Montebello, that even if the appeal is turned down, he would still refuse to issue the necessary permit, in apparent defiance of the law courts.

The issue has been embroiled in controversy for the past four years, when, following the publication of the local plan defining Naxxar as an area of high residential value, the Trade Fair Corporation (TFC) entered into a partnership with private company Sign It Ltd, with a view to moving to Ta’ Qali.

Following disagreements between the partners, Sign It Ltd teamed up with Nexos Ltd to buy out TFC, and the new corporation started organizing its own trade fairs at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre (MFCC), also owned by Sign It, in Ta’ Qali.

However, last January TFC entered into a new lease agreement with Naxxar grounds landlords, Scicluna Estates, with a view to reactivating the traditional International Trade Fair of Malta at Naxxar.

But the Department of Trade refused to issue an ad hoc licence, arguing that the basic conditions (i.e., a venue licensed to hold trade fairs) had not been met. 

In today’s interview Anthony Galea explains that according to law, the licence to hold fairs belongs to the landlords, even if applied for by third parties.

In this case, the Naxxar premises, formerly part of the grounds of the Palazzo Parisio, have been licensed to hold fairs for the past 50 years.

“However, we found out that the existing permit (44/130) had been irregularly closed in 2009 – irregularly, because the trade department never got permission from the landlords and neither did they take the initiative to inform the Trade Fairs Corporation.”

Both these are legally stipulated conditions for the withdrawal of a trade licence. But instead, the Trade Department took the trouble of tracing the heirs of Gerald Gatt – who was TFC general manager 35 years ago – and withdrew the licence on the grounds that his heirs did not express an interest in having it renewed.

As a result, TFEA took the Departments of Commerce and Trade to court, claiming to have been illegally denied a trade licence.

In his interview with MaltaToday, Galea points towards the telltale testimony of Dr Geoffrey Farrugia Mifsud, a former secretary at MFCC, who told the court that ‘If the Naxxar Trade Fair opens, MFCC will face serious financial repercussions.”

“Our lawyer (Prof. Ian Refalo) asked him, ‘so what you are saying is that you want a monopoly on trade fairs in Malta’. I knew there and then that we had won the case.”

In fact, Mr Justice Giannino Darmanin Demajo ruled last June that the original permit was still valid, and ordered the Trade Department to immediately process the ad hoc licence application.

But in a surprising twist, the Trade Department afterwards claimed that it had ‘already processed the application’, and returned to its original decision to deny the licence.

The AG has meanwhile filed two separate appeals – one against the ruling, and another against the court order to process the application. But in the light of Trade Director Montebello’s claim that he would not issue a permit even if the appeal was won by the Naxxar trade fair organisers, the controversy is likely to drag out further.