• Government contribution to Tallinja card will fall from €32.6 million in 2026 to €8 million in 2027.
• Public transport to be free for Maltese and EU citizens, long-term residents, people with humanitarian protection and other designated categories, but other non-EU citizens will have to pay.
• Free public transport for all residents was a milestone Malta committed to under its EU-funded Recovery and Resilience Plan.
• European Commission is currently assessing whether the reform means the milestone is reversed. It will form part of its assessment of Malta’s final payment request, which it expects to finish by December 2026.
• If the Commission finds the milestone was reversed, this could affect Malta’s final payment under the plan.

“€33 means half a month’s food for me and my son”. 

The government’s new measure to charge most non-EU nationals for public transport is raising concerns among people who have immigrated to Malta for work, as Reena Aquino from the Philippines explained to Amphora Media.

The announced transport fees form part of a package aimed at extracting funds from non-EU workers and residents without a long-term residence permit. It reverses the government’s flagship reform to extend free public transport to all its residents; a milestone included in the EU-funded Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

This funding stream, dubbed ‘cash for reforms’, gives governments more flexibility in spending EU funds as long as they implement agreed-upon reforms. Countries had until August 2026 to implement the proposed reforms and investments. 

The European Commission’s spokesperson confirmed that measures financed under this plan must implement equal opportunities for all, and Member States must prove that they did.

Asked whether this reverses an agreed-upon milestone, the European Commission’s spokesperson told Amphora Media that “Member States are required not to reverse reforms and investments that have already been assessed as satisfactorily fulfilled”.

“The Commission is currently examining the announcement by the Maltese government in the context of Malta’s final payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), submitted on 30 September 2026 and expected to be assessed by December 2026,” the spokesperson added, clarifying that if the Commission considers that a milestone was reversed, this may affect the final payment to Malta under the Commission’s methodology.

National authorities would have two months to explain the change. 

The bus-fee measure for TCNs proved polarising. Aquino, a founder of a Filipino community digital publication in Europe, EuroPinoy Magazine, is used to being vocal and visible online. But she was taken aback by the abuse her Facebook post about the measures attracted.

“It is heartbreaking that I have to eventually leave the island and the life I have built here,” she told Amphora Media, noting that warm relationships with colleagues and neighbours kept her grounded until now. “Some commenters say €1 a day is ‘not worth the drama.’ They do not see our household budget or the other fees we must pay just because we are TCNs.”

Dropping the flagship reform

In his New Year’s address in 2025, Prime Minister Robert Abela praised free childcare and free public transport as “support measures that other countries can only dream of”.

The National Transport Master Plan 2030 considers that “free public transport is also one of the key transport measures […], aimed to stimulate increased utilisation of public transport and alleviate road congestion.” In this document, the government further claimed that “Transport equity is a cornerstone of the Plan. By improving public transport coverage, ensuring seamless intermodal connections, and prioritising infrastructure for active mobility, the Plan seeks to create a system that is accessible to all, including vulnerable populations.”

The Tallinja card will cost €8 million in 2027, down from €32.6 million paid in 2026. That figure suggests the government estimates the financial cost of TCNs using the free bus service at €24.6 million.

Tallinja cards for adult passengers do not expire and it is not clear how the company running Malta’s buses will identify the thousands of users to convert into paying clients. A representative from Malta Public Transport told Amphora Media that practical arrangements are still being discussed.

Transport minister Chris Bonett and his team did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

A double roll-back for public transport

This is not the first time the government has backtracked on public transport commitments under RRP.

The Plan had originally included purchasing 102 electric buses for the public transport fleet by the end of June 2025. “This investment is complemented by the provision of free public transport to persons in different age cohorts to further enhance the use of collective transport,” the plan stated.

However, in December 2024 Robert Abela announced that the measure will be scrapped in favour of subsidies for private electric cars. The change was still missing from an update submitted to the European Commission in April 2025.

When Amphora Media asked Malta Public Transport to explain the change later in July 2025, the company’s representative replied that “Late [2024], the government announced that the EU funds that were originally allocated for the electric bus project are no longer available. When this was announced, the company had explained that since the EU grants were an integral part of the project to replace 102 diesel buses with electric buses, this project was no longer feasible and could not go ahead.” Malta Public Transport continued investing in electric buses without the government’s assistance.

By October 2025, the target of 102 newly purchased electric buses was gone from the list of targets, even though a reference to electric buses remained in the narrative report. The European Commission accepted the government’s excuse of implementation difficulties.

“Malta has explained that one measure is no longer achievable because of technical difficulties and unexpected procurement delays,” the Commission’s spokesperson explained to Amphora Media, adding that governments can remove reforms and investments due to ‘objective circumstances’.

In April 2026, Transport Malta declared that over 500 buses were running and 42 of them were electric. In October, the transport minister revealed that there were 75 electric buses, running alongside 460 diesel ones, meaning that 14% of Malta’s buses are electric. It is clear that without the planned investment electrification is proceeding slower.

“The net effect of all the requested changes was that the percentage of funds to support climate objectives dropped from 68.8% to 62%,” the Commission’s spokesperson said.

The Commission considers that “despite these changes, the plan continued to meet the requirements.”

Whether the measures Malta promised instead are a good replacement for electric buses is still being assessed.