• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU’s flagship funding stream for farms, mainly benefits road building, wineries, the poultry sector and Project Green in Malta;
• Project Green was the largest single beneficiary of the  €166 million fund, receiving €15.8 million, with no clear links to farming.
• Over €1.2 million went to Infrastructure Malta road-building projects.
• The authority claims it benefited over 308,508 persons from the ‘rural population’, which is more than half of Malta’s population, and dwarfs the number of registered farmers.
• Wine producers benefited from CAP’s basic income and environmental measures.
• Montekristo, which ran unsanctioned operations until 2025, also benefited.
• Farmers’ representatives have repeatedly voiced their needs: help acquiring land, reduced bureaucracy, and market access. “I had to drive around the island on the day of the deadline to find the right office,” farmer Cane Vella said about bureaucracy.
• At an average of over €201,000 per hectare, the purchase price of arable land in Malta is by far the highest in the EU, while rental rates are far below the EU average at €91 per hectare.
• CAP distribution is questioned not only in Malta; reporting from Italy shows that the selection process disadvantages small farmers who market products locally, even though small farms were historically dominant in Italy.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project. Together with Facta, Amphora Media reviewed who benefits the most from CAP and who is left out.

In Malta, most EU farm subsidies do not reach farmers. Data shows a large proportion went to roads and infrastructure investments. Wineries, the poultry sector and even Project Green scored big.

An analysis by Amphora Media of data published by fondi.eu and the Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency (ARPA) indicates that, since 2023, the majority of funds under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been captured by government bodies, while individual farmers have received a much smaller share.

“There is an office in Ta’ Qali with fifty farmers sitting half a day waiting,” farmer Cane Vella says of applying for a young farmer subsidy. “When you get inside, it’s very rushed.”

When the European Commission approved Malta’s CAP plan in 2022, Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo said that European Funds “will continue to assist all workers in this field.”

“The EU scheme is straightforward, but land registration is not,” Vella says. “There is no handbook.” Farmers’ representatives echoed the lack of coordination and strategic vision among government entities.

How does the EU fund Maltese farming?

The CAP is one of the 19 EU funding streams implemented by the government. It is financed through the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

In Malta, the Funds and Programmes Division within the Ministry for the European Funds oversees CAP funds as the managing authority. Applications and payments are processed by the ARPA. 

CAP goals include supporting farmers to help them “make a reasonable living”, sustainable management of natural resources, and keeping the rural economy “alive” by promoting jobs in farming, agri-food industries and associated sectors. 

Between 2023 and 2027, Malta will distribute a total of €166 million (EU funds and Maltese co-financing). 

Pillar 1: direct payments to farmers

Pillar 1 consists primarily of a direct income supplement for farmers to ensure their income stability and to recognise other benefits, including their role in caring for the countryside. This is entirely EU-funded.

Across the EU, nearly two-thirds of CAP funds are paid out this way. Between 2023 and 2027, nearly €43 million has been allocated to these direct payments in Malta.

Basic income support is evenly distributed, with the top 10 recipients sharing around 2% of the pot. The largest beneficiaries, Meridiana and Marsovin wineries, received over €26,500 between them.

Pillar 2: rural development and investments

In Malta, the first pillar is dwarfed by Pillar 2, which funds rural development measures including infrastructure, training schemes, and other investments.

Here, unlike Pillar 1, national governments co-finance and select projects under a national programme.

In Malta, EU funding for Pillar 2 is set at nearly €100 million for the funding period (around €76 million in EU funds and more than €41 million in national contribution).

Malta’s Government is the Major Winner

The published list of Pillar 2-funded projects shows that government bodies were the substantial beneficiaries of CAP funds:

• Around €40 million in EU funding, or 65% of allocated Pillar 2 funds, went to the central government.
• If entities like the Public Abattoir and the University of Malta, a public university, are included, the public sector’s share rises to nearly €42 million in EU funding, or 68% of Pillar 2.
• In contrast, farmers were collectively allocated almost €14 million in EU funds from this (rural development) pot. 

ARPA’s data shows that in 2023-2024, public sector entities accounted for the largest share of total funds disbursed.

The Ministry for Gozo and Planning received funding from three measures, the largest payment being for Investments in physical assets – over €986,000.

‘Local’ Funds for Project Green

The largest share of EU rural development funds went to support region-based local action groups, which together were allocated over €20 million to projects worth around €25 million.

Project Green, a centralised government agency, was the single largest CAP beneficiary, receiving €15.8 million, more than any individual local action group, which received some €1.4 million each, despite guidelines stating it is intended for non-profit local action groups.

Project Green’s CAP funds have been used to clean up Wied Għajn Riħana, remove illegally dumped waste, and support ‘afforestation’.

Project Green and ARPA did not respond to questions.

Read more about the workings of Project Green

Water Upgrades: Useful, But Not for All

The second-largest chunk of EU funds, €14.8 million, went to Water Services Corporation (WSC) for “Upgrading The Production Capacity of Reclaimed Water in Gozo and Malta North”.

In 2024, WSC distributed 1.5 million cubic meters of New Water: 0.35 million in Gozo, 0.77 million in Mellieha, and 0.37 million in Marsaskala. WSC reports that more than 1,800 registered users of the water supply

“The issue is that it is very unreliable. Sometimes there’s water, sometimes there’s no water,” Malcolm Borg of Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, a farmers’ organisation, told Amphora Media.

“Not all farmers get this new water,” he continued. “This is causing a bit of unfair competition.”

In an interview with TVM, a farmer who lacked access to recycled water said he spent at least €4,000 per year irrigating his land.

A farm map by Friends of the Earth Malta shows a high number of farms in Rabat (Malta), Attard, Zebbug (Malta), and other areas that are not covered by New Water dispensers.

The Western district, for example, had the largest number of agricultural holdings (as of 2020), yet it is not served by recycled water.

In a government consultation, one part-time farmer wrote that a recycled water connection he applied for “never worked” and remained out of service for nearly a year.

Road building takes over a million euros in CAP

Published data show that Infrastructure Malta was allocated over €1.2 million to “improve accessibility to farmland”.

For 2023, ARPA reported that 308,508 persons benefited from this as part of the “rural population”. This is more than half of Malta’s population, and far surpasses the number of registered farmers.

“Farmers sometimes complain that their road is not [great], but it is very low on the priority list of farmers,” Malcom Borg told Amphora Media.

“Agricultural fields are being used for recreational purposes – those people want good vehicle access to rural areas,” he claimed.

“Improvement in rural roads was an investment that was long overdue. But there are other pressing matters that need more attention and are not necessarily solved through funding, but through more organised public administration,” comments Jeanette Borg, who has founded and runs the Malta Youth in Agriculture Foundation for young farmers.

The organisation she leads has been active in policy dialogue.

In October, it brought together farmers, students, and tech industry representatives to develop ideas for tackling land access and water resilience, among other issues.

One of the key discussions centred around the question “Why are farmers often forced to choose short-term survival over long-term investments such as training and marketing?”

“We’re an arid country. It’s getting worse, so I would prioritise building reservoirs and research about pest control,” Jeanette Borg said. “Farmers face many stumbling blocks by the Planning Authority in building reservoirs, and we do not even have a national lab that can test for pesticide residues.”

Borg also co-authored a study on young farmers. It showed that the main challenges they identified were resources, market issues, and a lack of assistance from authorities.

She is adamant that Malta must fix its food production system before trying to entice young people to become farmers.

The Malta Food Agency and the Ministry for Gozo and Planning emerged among other top CAP Pillar 2 beneficiaries, as did AgriConnect, an advisory service for farmers.

Emanuel Ciappara, a chicken-farm operator, was the only farmer to make the list of top 10 beneficiaries of Pillar 2 schemes.

“My clients are already benefitting from the funding received through the latest machinery and innovations in the poultry sector and are currently enlarging the production capacity to meet the demand for local poultry that is a staple for a healthy diet,” a lawyer representing Ciappara said in response to Amphora’s questions about the grant awarded.

CAP funding is at odds with farmers’ needs

Farmers’ representatives say the most urgently needed interventions are elsewhere. Unaffordable land, overexploited aquifers, competition and complicated bureaucracy are acute pressures.

Unaffordable Land:

Eurostat shows that, at over €201,000 per hectare on average, the purchase price of arable land in Malta is by far the highest in the EU, although renting land is well below the EU average and cheaper than in most countries, at €91 per hectare.

“In Malta, one of the smallest countries in the world, land comes at a premium, and access to land is very limited. So if you have a new farmer, it’s almost impossible to enter the sector because they don’t have access to land and water,” Malcolm Borg says.

Bureaucracy:

“I’m afraid that the applications are very complicated, and most farmers would not have the knowledge of how to fill these in,” Jeanette Borg told Amphora Media.

“There are two major departments or entities that are stumbling blocks: the Lands Authority and Planning Authority.”

Approximately half of the total declared land and of used agrarian land is rented from the government and, according to Malcolm Borg, “is managed disastrously”.

Jeanette Borg agrees. “The Lands [Authority] is not organised, and whenever farmers go to change the tenureship, it’s a nightmare,” she told Amphora.

“I had to drive around the island on the day of the deadline to find the right office,” farmer Cane Vella remembers about his experience applying for a subsidy.

Lands Authority and the Ministry for European Funds and the Implementation of the Electoral Programme did not reply to Amphora’s questions.

Local farmers face significant competition from foreign exports:

Malta relies heavily on agri-food imports from other EU countries, exporting very little. Its agri-food trade with non-EU countries, including the UK, is more balanced.

Malta buys at least €155.6 million worth of agricultural produce from Italy, its top importer of animal and vegetable products, accounting for nearly a quarter of all imports.

However, research by Facta, our partners in this investigation, shows that small Italian farms struggle equally with access to land and credit, as the CAP system favours economies of scale.

Small and local Italian farms also disproportionately suffer from ‘informatisation’ of agriculture – having to submit indicators to relevant authorities for monitoring, Italian wine researcher Alessandra Biondi Bartolini told Facta.

“Those operating in disadvantaged or remote areas often lack a reliable internet connection, which becomes a major obstacle: these are people who have to get off the tractor and go into an office, and time is scarce,” she explained. Facta also notes that farmers cannot apply for subsidies directly – they must use consultants, who take a cut.

Read our partners’ stories in Italian: by Facta and by IRPI Media

How are the subsidies reaching farmers?

Large farm projects (worth over €30,000) accounted for the third-largest share of EU CAP funds in Malta, benefiting 104 farmers, with average projects below €120,000.

A €1.95 million scheme supported 393 farmers with small on-farm investments, averaging €4,961 each, for equipment and upgrades.

To apply for support, farmers must show they can cover the remaining 40% of costs, either with their own funds or a bank loan.

Ensuring that expenses are eligible is a challenge, says Cane Vella, as farm expenses are diverse and sometimes unexpected.

“Engine failures. Implements breaking. Pump failures. Rats eating pipes. Hailstorm destroying crops. These are just a few common occurrences,” he lists these unexpected costs.

“Farmers say: Don’t make orders before the subsidy is in your bank account,” he says.

Who benefits most: private operators and CAP funding

The list of private individuals benefiting from subsidies is published without identifiers, making their areas of activity difficult to verify.

Among the largest 2023-2024 beneficiaries that applied as legal persons were:

When asked to explain why an event caterer and a communications company received agricultural subsidies, ARPA promised to respond. Weeks later, its reply was still not ready.

Animal products get a strong focus in CAP

The choice of which sectors CAP supports has received international criticism.

“The CAP has always favoured intensive agricultural species like cereals, corn, etc, along with livestock. It has never been a tool in favour of maintaining small multifunctional farms, nor of the agro-ecological transition,” says Italian agronomist Riccardo Bocci.

In terms of production value at basic prices, vegetables and horticulture (growing garden plants) in Malta account for by far the highest share, a third (33%) of all output value. They are followed by milk (20%), eggs (12%) and poultry (10%).

Jeanette Borg and colleagues’ study found a strong interest in fruit and vegetable farming among young farmers: a third of those surveyed grow fruit and vegetables, although many also raise cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Malta’s CAP subsidies show a strong focus on animal products.

This is not unique to Malta and has been criticised by four major environmental networks in a joint report, where they argued against the use of CAP funds for “on measures that encourage large-scale unsustainable farming”, notably livestock, across the EU.

Chicken farmer Emanuel Ciappara is the private farmer to be allocated more than €1 million in CAP funds during the current financing period. He is also the largest beneficiary of the Maltese CAP’s “On-Farm Productive Investments”. 

His project, an “Investment in new state-of-the-art broiler production facilities and ancillary machinery”, is estimated to cost over €2 million out of an indicative budget of €10 million for this measure.

A lawyer representing Ciappara and his companies said he is “a self-employed poultry breeder and he personally operates a poultry farm, breeding poultry, in his own personal name, separately and distinctly from [a separate beneficiary] C & K Ciappara & Sons Limited” – the funds received are “to upgrade and expand his poultry breeding operations”.

The dairy sector is considered to be strategically important to Malta, maintaining stable milk production since Malta joined the EU despite the number of raw milk suppliers shrinking in half between 2003 and 2019. 

Malta Dairy Products, the owner of the Benna brand and a ‘quasi-monopoly’ of fresh milk, was allocated over €450,000 in EU subsidies during the current period.

Data provided by ARPA shows that over the current period, 223 eligible applications from dairy farms, 226 from sheep farms, 85 from beef farms and 29 under a livestock measure were received.

Wines benefit from CAP’s environmental measures

Vineyards are the largest recipients of funds and measures designed to pay farmers directly for environmentally beneficial practices, a part of CAP’s focus.

According to ARPA’s data for the current funding period, no farmer applied under the biodegradable mulch measure, only eight applied under the biodiversity scheme, 124 applied under the integrated pest management scheme, and 11 applied under the organic farming scheme.

Montekristo benefits from CAP despite irregularities

One of the largest recipients is Montekristo Vineyards Ltd, established in 2003, and owned and run by Carmel (known as Charles) and Paul Polidano. 

Montekristo received agricultural subsidies in 2023 and 2024, after the Planning Authority had issued enforcement notices for illegal building in an agricultural area on this site, which also features a concrete plant and a batching plant.

Charles Polidano’s 2009 and 2010 applications to sanction Montekristo’s family park, including an illegal zoo and an extension of its winery, in Siggiewi, were approved by the Planning Authority in July 2025 despite pending court cases concerning the site.

Wine making on the site can be traced to 2005, when the group obtained permission to convert a pig farm into a winery and vineyard, and later to expand it. However, case files indicate that the area used for winemaking was to be limited.

Today, Montekristo is identified as one of Malta’s main wine producers. In 2014, the Times of Malta reported that it had already received agricultural subsidies intended for farmers in disadvantaged areas. 

Montekristo group did not respond to repeated attempts to reach it for comment.

What the people wanted

The latest EU regulation on CAP acknowledges that “Member States should have the option to design a specific intervention for small farmers replacing the other direct payments interventions”.

Yet, international NGOs have noted that “the EU’s CAP has largely failed several of its objectives. It failed farmers, who continue to leave the sector en masse and are hit by one crisis after another. It also failed to address environmental issues, and in some cases even exacerbated them”.

A survey among Maltese residents found that nearly all consider agriculture important for the future, yet an overwhelming majority would sacrifice EU agriculture’s competitiveness to fight climate change.

Nearly a third — more than the EU average — hold farmers responsible for protecting the environment, and half are ready to pay more for climate-friendly products.

Against this backdrop of criticism, public concern and policy reform, the debate over CAP’s future remains far from settled. While many farmers continue to struggle financially, expectations of the sector — particularly on climate and environmental protection — are only increasing.

“Farmers are living in economic poverty, but are rich in other ways,” Cane Vella concludes.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia, in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

Giulia Bonelli (Facta) contributed reporting. Rui Baros contributed data scraping.

This is one of two stories about two vastly different Mediterranean communities struggling with overtourism produced through the collaborative project Senza Segnale, involving journalists from Malta and Italy. One focuses on a lively city and tourist destination – Palermo – but this one is about my suburban hometown of Swieqi, a place with little to offer tourists yet deeply impacted by tourism nevertheless. Published in collaboration with Newsbook.

The Suburbanites’ Protest

A few dozen people who gathered in Swieqi on the last Sunday of August ensured that Malta joined tourist destinations across southern Europe in protesting against overtourism last year, though the choice of venue may seem strange to outside eyes.

Swieqi, which emerged as a fast-growing suburb of neighbouring St Julians in the 1960s, is far from a tourist destination. Home to over 15,000 people, it has no beaches, no notable attractions, few venues for socialising. Two hotels were torn down years ago, and the only collective accommodation left are an aparthotel and two guesthouses with around 80 rooms among them, with planning policies that effectively preclude the development of new ones.

Calling Swieqi boring is not unreasonable, but it is centrally located on a small island and is widely considered a desirable place to live. And boring means quiet; or at least it used to.

The Holiday Flat Loophole

But Swieqi’s restrictions on touristic development have been rendered worthless by a phenomenon that has transformed tourism: a sharp rise in holiday rentals, fuelled by rise of Airbnb and other online platforms making them readily accessible to travellers across globe.

It is a phenomenon that caught authorities unprepared, as Swieqi itself shows: while it is mostly designated as a “residential priority area” in which tourist accommodation is prohibited, holiday rentals are still treated as ordinary residences under Maltese planning law.

Any home can thus be turned into licensed “holiday premises,” circumventing policies drawn up before a flood of tourist rentals could have been foreseen.

A complex of holiday flats on Swieqi Road is but one example of this anomaly: it was built after a planned guesthouse was refused a permit as it was deemed unsuited to a residential area.

This road has become a hotspot for holiday rentals as it leads straight to Malta’s main nightlife district of Paceville: an underpass beneath the Regional Road, one of Malta’s main roads, is all that separates the two.

Many listings emphasise the proximity to Paceville: some do not even mention Swieqi at all.

Worse than Barcelona

Official statistics present an unenviable scenario for Malta and Swieqi: the proportion of tourist rentals is markedly higher than in the city notable for fighting back.

Barcelona, home to nearly 1.7 million people – roughly three times Malta’s population – had just over 10,000 licensed tourist flats in 2024, when its mayor confirmed they would be banned for good by 2029.

The number of licensed holiday premises in Malta reached 7,649 by the start of February, and Swieqi – home to 2.7% of the national population – hosts 5% of them, with 386 licensed premises providing 2,079 bed spaces.

Actual numbers may well be considerably higher when unlicensed premises are taken into account: an exercise carried out last summer identified 432 active Swieqi listings on Airbnb alone.

Malta thus has more than twice as many short-term rentals per capita – and Swieqi roughly four times as many – as Barcelona, despite national tourist numbers that still fall far short of what the city receives.

No Slow Season

Malta’s tourism numbers are growing rapidly, as is the case with many other Mediterranean destinations, facilitated by low-cost flights and holiday rentals which have helped make travel more accessible.

Tourist numbers had been stable for around two decades until the early 2010s, with Malta welcoming a little more than 1 million tourists a year, but have risen dramatically since.

Malta welcomed more than 2 million tourists in 2017, and the 3 million mark was surpassed in 2024, with 3.56 million travellers. That record was surpassed by November 2025, and the country may well have surpassed the 4 million mark by the end of the year: three times as many as it had received just 15 years prior.

Consequently, while tourism in Malta remains seasonal, peaking in summer, one cannot really speak of a “slow” season anymore.

No less than 200,000 people visited Malta in February 2025, in what is historically the slowest month of the year.

Given these figures, it is perhaps unsurprising that all Swieqi residents I spoke to suggested that the situation took a marked turn for the worse around a decade ago.

“It doesn’t end now: it’s slightly less intense, but it’s continuous,” Arnold Cassola, who organised the August protest in which he decried Swieqi’s transformation into “Paceville’s daytime dormitory,” explains. “You could plan around July and August before, but it’s not like that anymore.”

Noise disturbances are a regular complaint, whether through house parties from partygoers walking to or from their flat, often while drunk or intoxicated. This foot traffic often leads to other nuisances, including vandalism and the odd fight. Garbage is another chronic concern: the waste generated in tourist rentals is often brought out at inappropriate times, and often remains uncollected for days. 

The Council’s Crusade

Given the chance, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat would likely follow Barcelona’s lead and ban short-term rentals outright: a proposal by the council he leads would effectively do so. But Maltese local councils have no authority to do anything of the sort on their own.

The lack of powers – limited since they were created in 1993, and reduced further over time – is an evident source of frustration for Muscat, not least since the local council bears the brunt of complaints it cannot directly address. Tourist accommodation licensing is under the Malta Tourism Authority, and local councils can no longer set waste collection schedules after a single national schedule was introduced.

What they can do is speak up, express their concerns and present proposals, and while the local council has done so, it is futile if the authorities prove unwilling to respond. This is laid bare by a document Muscat provides: a letter prepared for a meeting the council held with the minister for tourism a full decade ago, on February 2016.

In that letter, Muscat highlighted that the number of short-lets had “mushroomed” in Swieqi, causing its inhabitants stress “in the form of noise disturbances, sometimes vandalism and even cleanliness,” and pleaded for regulations that would make it possible to maintain order and address abuse.

But this plea went unheard, with Muscat observing that if short-lets were mushrooming then, “now they’re spreading like wildfire.”

It went a step further last year, presenting no fewer than 12 proposals, including requiring tourist rentals to be classified more accurately as commercial properties. The council also called for a moratorium on new licenses until carrying capacity studies are conducted and for strict limits to be set on the number of tourist rentals in every Maltese locality.

The Protest Organiser

Few people have lived in Swieqi as long as Cassola, an academic and veteran politician who presently chairs the political party Momentum: his family had moved to what was then a nascent suburb in 1972, when he was a teenager. He moved back to his late parents’ home a few years ago, after spending much of his life in a nearby apartment, a move which gives him some space from short-lets, in contrast to his former apartment.

But it’s still very close to Paceville, and his street sees considerable foot traffic accordingly.

Beyond countless incidents of drunk partygoers urinating at his doorstep, he’s had a car mirror broken no less than three times.

Through his Facebook page “Arnold’s Citizen Watch,” he regularly airs the grievances of people from around the country, so it is perhaps unsurprising that he is involved in his hometown’s struggle against overtourism.

His efforts have included launching a parliamentary petition calling for urgent action on the “misuse of tourist rentals in residential areas,” which attracted 2,373 signatures, but he felt a protest was necessary as summer arrived and tempers flared.

In part, Cassola was inspired by growing community activism in Swieqi and beyond: he made a point of inviting residents’ groups from other areas similarly bearing the brunt of overtourism. But the protest was also organised in response to growing anger and in a bid to pre-empt plans for more disruptive actions, which he feared would backfire, including a proposed protest which would have dumped rubbish bags outside the prime minister’s office to highlight Swieqi’s own garbage crisis.

The Former Minister Claiming Maladministration

Another prominent community voice which emerged in the summer was Evarist Bartolo, a government minister between 2013 and 2022 as part of the governing Labour Party and a Swieqi resident for over 30 years. A former journalist and lecturer in journalism – my thesis supervisor, as it happens – Bartolo has now drawn the curtain on his political career, but like Cassola, maintains an active presence on Facebook, regularly sharing his reflections. He readily endorsed the protest, and while was unable to attend it, prepared a message which was read out on his behalf.

As far as Swieqi residents are concerned, Bartolo and I can both count ourselves lucky: neither of us are particularly affected by holiday rentals, even though his home is closer to Paceville than mine. Still, he is regularly approached by fellow residents hoping he could be their voice, often Labour supporters in what is a stronghold of the Nationalist Party, which has enjoyed a strong majority at the council since its inception.

Bartolo has no compunction about calling out his former colleagues in government as the stories pour in. He is adamant that the authorities have been guilty of maladministration in managing tourist rentals, and has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate accordingly.

As one example, he takes aim at the very structure of Malta’s tourism authority, which has the dual – and seemingly conflicting – role of regulating and promoting the tourism industry, with much of its budget funding the latter aim.

Bartolo observes that other tourist destinations have shown that it was possible to act decisively against overtourism: some may even have gone too far in their opinion. But in Malta, the authorities continued ignoring the issue at their peril.

“If I were them, I would worry about allowing an irresponsible sector to harm the reputation of tourism,” he insisted. “Because hostility to tourism will only increase.”

Suffering in Silence

A common thread emerges in my interviews with three of Swieqi’s most prominent political figures: a reluctance by many residents to go public with their concerns. Even August’s protest attracted a modest crowd of around 80 people, though that may in part reflect political bickering which ultimately saw the local council sit it out. Cassola hailed these numbers as a “very good result” nevertheless, noting that Swieqi was still unaccustomed to community activism.

Muscat, on his part, had highlighted that many residents were “suffering in silence,” and in September, the local council provided the community with another opportunity to speak up through a meeting with the community policing team responsible for the area. 

With dozens of people turning up, turnout was good as far as Maltese community meetings go, and the crowd had a lot to say. But it emerged that just eight police reports had been filed for tourism-related disturbances during the year.

“We know how serious the situation is,” Inspector Gabby Gatt, who manages the community police teams in Swieqi and a number of other localities, assured the residents present. “But we do not receive enough reports to substantiate it.”

As the meeting progressed, however, and as one resident after another spoke up, a clear pattern emerged: the resources the police could or wanted to allocate were nowhere near what residents were hoping for.

And an incident shared by Gatt highlighted that landlords have little incentive to ensure their guests are good neighbours: one informed about his rowdy guests celebrated that he could now claim their deposit.

Enter the Pressure Group

The community police were not alone in encouraging residents to file reports: the same message is emphasised in “Swieqi Pressure Group.” Though just a group chat on WhatsApp, as its moderators make clear, in a locality that lacks a residents’ association of its own it may come closest to filling that gap for now.

It was established only last May: Cassola had observed that this took place amid rising tempers.

Martin and Steve (not their real names) confirm as much when we meet, but Martin recounts that the direct trigger was an incident which occurred near his home: a male tourist who took a naked morning stroll, aggressively confronting a number of residents along the way. A photo of this incident made the rounds on social media and was even featured in local press: Martin witnessed it in person.

“Things were already bothering me, then there was this case… the very next day it was done,” he said.

The authorities did respond once the incident went viral, even if Martin was less than encourage by the outcome: a suspended sentence after the tourist admitted to charges including harassment and public indecency. This, he stressed, would have no bearing on someone who does not actually live in the country.

The two men firmly rejected the suggestion that the community’s issues centred around numerous low-level offences which could not be considered a police priority, despite the inconvenience they may cause.

“There is a perceived sense of threat within the community, especially among the elderly and the young,” Steve observes. “I won’t say that people are afraid to leave their homes all the time, but the fear is there.” 

Martin readily concurs, emphasising his fears about the safety of his two daughters, both in their twenties.

An Inadequate Response, By Design

The interview with ethe two men took place the day after the community police meeting, and confirmed that their suggested remedy had its limitations, as Steve found out when he reported a loud flat party keeping his family awake the night before his son took an exam.

“I go out, literally screaming, file a report, but they keep going,” he notes. “By the time the police arrive an hour later, they are knocked out, and there’s nothing to report.”

The meeting saw Cassola repeatedly challenge the police’s insistence on reports: they could and did act on their own initiative when they saw fit. He recalled another incident involving a naked tourist, one filmed riding a motorcycle through Malta’s streets and was later identified, prosecuted, and fined after the footage went viral.

Various residents made clear their reluctance to follow through with a report publicly, including by testifying in court: not least since it would mean facing off against the business interests behind the holiday rentals. Neither they nor Cassola swayed police from insisting on the necessity of doing so, however.

Bartolo viewed this insistence cynically, deeming it a deliberate tactic.

“They insist you must show up and testify deliberately, to make you give up,” he observes. “Why are we expecting ordinary individuals to step up? Why don’t the authorities do anything to strike a balance and protect the public?”

‘Collateral Damage’

In this context, the residents’ dealings – or lack thereof – with police and other authorities highlight that Swieqi’s struggles were not an issue of residents versus tourists, but of a community burdened by a business that often profited at their expense. The link between short-term rentals and Malta’s politically-influential construction industry is not missed by anyone I spoke to.

“The government is closing an eye… to let people turn a profit,” Martin muses. “And we are just collateral damage.”

He suggests a simple remedy – “if you’re not capable of handling your clients, close it down” – but it is not an approach the authorities are exactly known for where business interests are involved.

Muscat’s own assessment is that the state’s failings were not a matter of incompetence, but betrayed an unwillingness to act.

“You’re under pressure… and you have to stand up to it,” he notes. “But they give in.”

And as our interview draws to a close, he warns things can get much worse.

Profiteering Over Everything

“Developers have become dangerously strong, you have no idea,” he maintains. “They view us as mere ants, and they don’t know how to invest in anything else.” 

The present short-let craze was a natural consequence of this, the mayor maintains: they became the most profitable use of an apartment. Consequently, in a country where apartments are often sold before a permit is even issued, there are now projects that are not being advertised for sale at all, including a large apartment block being built a short distance away from the local council offices that could by itself increase Swieqi’s stock of licensed holiday rentals by nearly a third.

“Spain was exactly in the same situation Malta is in now before the 2008 crisis,” he observes. “The economy was thriving, but it was all built on property. And what do we invest in? Property, property, property, property…”

Bartolo expresses similar sentiments as he rails against an attitude that prioritises profiteering over all else, and warns that change is unlikely when Malta’s main political parties are financially dependent on businesses.

“The scales will always be tipped in favour of the donors,” he muses. And as Muscat had done, Bartolo warns this may have dire consequences down the line.

“I worry that we’re being very short-sighted, because we’ve always scraped through,” he observes. “So we remain on the brink.”

The Government Responds

With the interviews taking place as summer was drawing to a close, it was perhaps inevitable that they betrayed a general sense of pessimism about the future of the community.

“If the authorities fail to take proper steps, it will be more of the same,” Bartolo maintained. “And so far I’m not seeing any political will.”

The others shared similar sentiments amid expectations that the growth holiday rentals would remain unchecked, though Cassola did temper this pessimism as he hailed the fact that Swieqi residents were finally finding their voice.

And by the end of summer, their voice had reached its intended audience.

In September, the government picked Swieqi and Valletta for a pilot project which aimed to develop community solutions to the problems caused by overtourism. And in November, this was followed up by proposed regulations which would make it possible to restrict short-lets to designated areas and require tourist rentals to display a 24-hour contact number which aggrieved residents could complain to. 

A month-long public consultation finished in December, though the regulations are yet to become law, and the number of holiday rentals in Swieqi and in Malta has only grown since then.

A Hopeful Future?

The proposed regulations still fall considerably short of the local council’s demand, with no caps on numbers, no indication that existing rentals would be affected and no commitment that any designated zones would be drawn up. And in a country that has long struggled with enforcing regulations, their implementation still relies on the political will Bartolo failed to see among his former cabinet colleagues.

Bartolo’s response as I sought to find out whether the government’s gestures had given my interviewees new hopes was succinct: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,”

Muscat was hopeful: “there is no reason why (the situation) should not improve… God forbid that it does not improve drastically.” But the mayor emphasises the need to do more, not least closing the planning loophole that enabled Swieqi’s transformation into Paceville’s dormitory and a capacity study, whilst warning that the challenge will be even greater this year.

The others do not share his optimism, with Cassola viewing the proposals cynically as “lip service to gain votes, since elections are approaching.” Any sign of progress, he maintains, could only be determined after the next election – which must take place by 2027 – takes place.

Steve and Martin, meanwhile, see little cause for celebration since even winter has not brought them peace: it’s still bad now, only better than summer.

Noise, disturbances, garbage accumulation and drug use continue unabated.

Neither are yet to see any political will to change things: “if there was, things would have moved in the right direction,” Steve muses, while Martin reiterates that the interest of those profiting at the community’s expense were still being put first.

This scepticism does not appear unwarranted, given that a previous proposal to require apartment owners to obtain approval from their condominium neighbours before licensing it as a holiday rentals was ditched early last year: tourism minister Ian Borg deemed it unfair on those who invested in short-lets. Instead, Borg pledged to enforce the rules to ensure neighbourly respect.

As Swieqi can attest, that proved to be a broken promise, one that casts a shadow on the latest pledges. But it also led to a community still struggling to define its identity to find its voice and be heard, across the political spectrum: the next step, perhaps, will be to ensure it is actually listened to.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia; in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente; in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

From hunting and fireworks to village feasts, many Maltese pastimes depend on open spaces. In the wake of the opposition Nationalist Party’s (PN) voted-down attempt to enshrine the right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, Prime Minister Robert Abela pledged constitutional safeguards for traditional hobbies, portraying his party as their only “guarantee.”

The debate has pitted environmental protection against the preservation of tradition. But is that really the case? And has “constitutional protection” become a buzzword that means little in practice?

On 12th October, Prime Minister Robert Abela promised constitutional protections for traditional hobbies and said that the Labour Party is the only guarantee for amateurs and hobbyists. 

He did so in reaction to the opposition’s motion to enshrine a right to a clean and sustainable environment as a constitutional right.

Abela told the Times of Malta that this proposal was “contrary to what others tried to do, who attempted to take away that protection and deprive [hobbyists] of their pastime.”

Abela also said that he would offer constitutional safeguards to ‘all traditions’, including hunting and trapping during a limited season.

“We know the challenges hunting and trapping face locally and in Europe. But traditions like fireworks, feasts, and sports, sometimes taken for granted,” are now at risk, Labour Party MEP Alex Agius Saliba said.

“Will this give me, as a citizen, the right to play hopscotch out in the streets, as we used to in the past?” Birdlife Malta’s Darryl Grima told the Malta Independent.

A green paper published by the government after the PN’s the proposal claimed “Safeguarding the environment is a national priority” and that “the country’s commitment to environmental protection is demonstrated through a robust framework of constitutional provisions and international legal agreements.”

According to reports, Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms Rebecca Buttigieg claimed on national TV that the environment as a human right was already in the constitution, which is not the case.

The government’s proposal and protection of tradition:

Malta’s government is yet to present a bill regarding the constitutional protection of hobbies.

In its 2022 electoral manifesto, the PL had a section on recreation and hobbies. It made promises for caravan, camping and picnic enthusiasts, and promised green networks for ramblers, hikers and all those who visit the Maltese countryside.” It also mentioned amateur fishing and promised safeguarding “equal and equitable” hunting and trapping in line with EU directives.

However, several safeguards are already available.

Malta has ratified UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. “Intangible cultural heritage” can refer to social practices, rituals and festive events, and the signatory countries are committed to “take the necessary measures to ensure the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage present in its territory”. 

Malta’s Cultural Heritage Act defines cultural heritage as including “intangible cultural assets comprising arts, traditions, customs and skills employed in the performing arts, in applied arts and in crafts and other intangible assets which have a historical, artistic or ethnographic value”.

According to this law, “every citizen of Malta as well as every person present in Malta shall have the duty of protecting the cultural heritage as well as the right to benefit from this cultural heritage through learning and enjoyment.”

The state, in turn, “shall have the duty of establishing and maintaining administrative and regulatory structures of superintendence so as to ensure that this heritage is protected and conserved”.

Malta’s inventory of intangible heritage includes the traditional village feast, falconry, sea salt harvesting and other practices, but not fireworks, hunting, trapping and shooting.

Malta had the option to sign the Council of Europe’s Faro Convention, which defines cultural heritage and demands that “exercise of the right to cultural heritage may be subject only to those restrictions which are necessary in a democratic society for the protection of the public interest and the rights and freedoms of others.” But it did not sign it.

It is unclear how the constitutional protection would address challenges of high population density and fragmented land.

Speaking at a Labour Party event, Lucas Micallef, president of the National Association of Hunters and Trappers (FKNK), said, “If we do not have a natural environment to go to, if we do not have rural spaces, we cannot practice what we love so much.”

What’s happened abroad?

Specifically on hunting, different legal traditions exist in Europe. Polish academics have noted that falconry, for example, is “is considered to be a form of intangible heritage manifested in knowledge and practices regarding nature and the universe”, but English fox hunting with dogs is not and has been banned. 

“The heritage cultivated by hunters should not be reduced to some open-air folk museum. It should be a living element valuable for the cultural cohesion of local communities, their connections and sensitivity to the natural environment,” the authors argued.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand legally recognise traditional native hunting and fishing, but their criminal systems impose “burden of proof of traditional practice as a defence”.

In 2013, Spain adopted a law to enshrine bullfighting as a heritage practice – the law is still in force despite a petition for the “No Es Mi Cultura” campaign to remove the protections gathering over 700,000 signatures, according to the campaign organisers.

The law establishes that the government must guarantee Spaniards the right to practise bullfighting freely, subject to applicable regulations. Bulls used for fighting, as well as hunting dogs, are excluded under the 2023 national animal welfare law.

PN’s proposal

PN’s bill, presented by Darren Carabott, was debated in two parliamentary sessions. It aimed to add the environment among rights to ‘enjoy’ alongside property and the protection of the law. 

“All persons in Malta shall have the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” the proposed article read.

It specified that “a person bringing such an action shall not be required to show any personal interest” when pursuing contravening actions.

The Opposition’s proposal had courted significant criticism from the government and lobbyists, some of which were tabled in parliament. These included The National Band Clubs Association, The Malta Maritime Forum, FKNK, The Malta Shooting Sport Federation, and the football association. 

Kaċċaturi San Ubertu, another hunters’ organisation, voiced its support for making the protection of the environment constitutionally enforceable, but added that “if environmental rights are to be recognised in the Constitution, then the same consideration should be given to the incorporation of the right to practice traditional and regulated hunting and trapping.”

The opposition’s proposal was shot down in Parliament with 32 votes in favour, and 40 against. PL MPs all voted against the proposal.

A right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment was promised in PN’s 2023 guidelines. The proposed bill defined environment as including “the social conditions, aesthetic coherence and cultural attributes”. 

On hobbies, the PN’s electoral manifesto singled out “festivals, celebrations, and other manifestations”, and promised to “take all the necessary decisions not only to prevent these habits from being lost but to strengthen them.” It did not mention hunting and trapping.

Legal protections of the environment

Currently, Malta’s constitution states that “the State shall protect and conserve the environment and its resources for the benefit of the present and future generations and shall take measures to address any form of environmental degradation in Malta” in Declaration of principles, which are not enforceable in court.

In comparison:

• The Spanish constitution contains the clause that “Everyone has the right to enjoy an environment suitable for personal development”;
• The Greek constitution enshrines a right to a natural environment;
• The Portuguese constitution protects the right to a “healthy and ecologically balanced human living environment”;
• The Slovak constitution establishes that “Everyone has the right to a favourable environment” and “No one may endanger, or damage the environment, natural resources, and the cultural heritage beyond the extent laid down by law”.

In a 2022 resolution, the UN’s General Assembly recognised “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right”.

Malta has the Environment Protection Act. It stipulates that “It shall be the duty of every person and entity, whether public or private, to protect the environment” and “It shall be the duty of the Government to protect the environment for the benefit of the present and future generations”. Those provisions are not enforceable in court.

The Crimes against the Environment Act lists several offences that include radiation, pollution, and the destruction or trading in protected species.

If the crime does not harm humans, the punishment is set at “imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine (multa) not exceeding one thousand euro.”

The government’s green paper acknowledges that “evolving challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pressures on natural resources demand further strengthening of existing laws” and that “Responsible execution also entails collaboration with citizens, businesses, and eNGOs so that compliance becomes part of a shared culture of environmental responsibility.” It does not mention courts, police or environmental crime.

Is the constitution an effective safeguard?

When Malta joined the European Union, the European Union Act gave EU law supremacy over Maltese law. It specifies that any Maltese law conflicting with Malta’s EU obligations or with rights derived from EU law is “without effect and unenforceable.” 

EU Law vs Malta’s Constitution 

For Malta, bird trapping is a clear instance where traditional hobbies clash with EU law.

According to the jurisprudence of the Maltese Constitutional Court, a law that breaches EU law is contrary to the Constitution. Last year, the Court of Justice ruled that the bird trapping derogation is in breach of EU law.

If a right to traditional hobbies were added to the constitution, but the practice of those hobbies clashed with EU law, the constitutional ambiguity would have to be either anticipated and addressed in legislation or resolved in case law, potentially inundating the Constitutional Court.

Implementation

Meanwhile, there are regular concerns over the applicability of constitutional court decisions in Malta to actual legislation.

The constitution contains Chapter II, in which “The provisions […] shall not be enforceable in any court, but […] it shall be the aim of the State to apply these principles in making laws.”

In its latest rule of law report, the European Commission highlighted that it is “up to Parliament to repeal or amend laws found unconstitutional”.

This means that “unconstitutional laws remain valid until Parliament repeals them”.

If any national or EU law were to conflict with constitutional provisions, even a Constitutional Court ruling in one case would not mean that the uncertainty would be resolved for all similar cases, because “judgments of the Constitutional Court lack universal applicability.”

As is the case in human rights cases, or even old rent laws, constitutional redress is not an effective remedy in Malta, and judgments of the Constitutional Court lack universal applicability.
Carabott’s bill addresses these limitations by prescribing direct court intervention.

Malta’s constitutional and legislative framework means that rulings by the Constitutional Court lack universal applicability. This weakens constitutional protection, whether for hobbies, traditional practices, or the environment.

For example, although the Constitution already contains environmental provisions, key laws remain weak and often preclude effective litigation.

Alarmist claims that stronger environmental protections in the Constitution would spell the end of traditional hobbies are difficult to justify, as are the claims that hobbies can only be protected by the Constitution.

Malta has failed to use existing tools to protect certain hobbies as intangible cultural heritage, the way it has done with village feasts and falconry. Nor has it signed the relevant Council of Europe convention requiring that restrictions on traditional practices be properly justified.

Ultimately, politicians’ assertions that constitutional safeguards are the only guarantee for hobbyists are misleading.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

Malta’s 2025 trapping season is now open.This year, the government has relaxed rules on scientific bird ringing, removing references to EURING, the coordinating body of bird ringing schemes. The state insists the trapping effort is for research despite the EU Court of Justice ruling that Malta failed to prove a lack of alternatives.

The government’s decision has split both sides of the trapping debate: the National Association of Hunters and Trappers (FKNK), the leading hunting and trapping association, Kaċċaturi San Ubertu (KSU), a smaller NGO, and conservation NGOs.

“This historic step opens a new chapter in our country’s approach to bird conservation and research,” FKNK said.

KSU’s secretary Adrian Cauchi emphasised that no formal ringing course exists in Europe, and all ringers must ultimately be allowed to operate by the government. 

“I cannot do the [training to become a ringer] with Birdlife, because Birdlife is with EURING. EURING is not giving us a way out because it wants to abolish the traditional methods,” he told Amphora Media.

For Birdlife Malta, this “ill-conceived plan is destined to fail. Scientific bird ringing is only credible when carried out within the EURING network, the only recognised European framework for bird ringing. Any attempt to operate outside this network will produce meaningless data and expose Malta to further ridicule and sanctions.”

Trapping continues to court controversy, but the question is: Is trapping in Malta really all for research?

Malta’s government began declaring research derogations for trapping in 2020.  Maltese law allows “under strictly supervised conditions and in a selective manner, a research derogation to obtain scientific data on Malta’s reference population of the seven finch species”. 

The legal notice argues that “ornithologists  and  licensed  bird-ringers  have  been unsuccessful  in  collecting […] the required  data  to  meet  the  stated  objective  of  the  Finches Research  Project,” which is:

“Where do finches that migrate over Malta during post-nuptial (autumn) migration come from?”

Police spot-checks within each region are promised to be daily.

The Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU), under the Ministry of Gozo and Planning, explained in 2021 that trappers can “control”, or temporarily capture, the seven finch species, “determine which are fitted with a ring”, and immediately release them.

“Once data saturation has been reached for all seven finch species, the research project will terminate in its entirety,” WBRU said in 2023. The government considers that “data saturation may be reached at a threshold of 60 ring recoveries per species”.

The Ministry for Gozo has claimed it is “the least intrusive course of action to gather quality data on the provenance of migratory finches.”

“This initiative is generating robust information, including a significant increase in foreign ring recoveries through the clap-net system, which in some species has even surpassed existing information. In five years of such research, the information collected from ring recoveries exceeded 100 years of ring recoveries by BirdLife Malta. This information is essential for calculating the populations of these bird species,” the ministry said in a press release.

FKNK has argued that the derogation combines “deep socio-cultural traditions with scientific research” and that banning the practice risks “the potential for stagnation in the field of ornithological research”. Its president thanked the government for allowing the ‘continuity’ of the practice.

In 2024, FKNK published a series of claims regarding the research project and EURING, the European coordinators of bird ringing schemes. These included:

• Trappers’ nets are more effective than ringers’;
• Each bird is screened for a scientific ring; 
• “EURING and the local monopoly of bird-ringing made it challenging to persuade impartial candidates (…) to endorse the Project.”
• “Throughout the open hunting and trapping seasons, the Maltese islands are effectively under police control.”

Conservation NGOs have a different view. 

“Trapping is an unsustainable method of hunting which causes damage to wildlife and habitats,” Birdlife Malta has said, adding elsewhere that the traditional trapping method destroys natural habitats, harms non-target wildlife, and fuels illegal wildlife trade.

“In a last-ditch attempt to justify this discredited scheme, Minister for Hunting and Trapping Clint Camilleri, supported by Minister for the Environment Miriam Dalli, has enacted amendments to the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations that would significantly dilute the standards for scientific bird ringing,” the NGO said.

The NGO Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) claims that, “Many bird trappers did not comply with the law even before the final finch trapping ban and either laid out their nets in spring or used electronic decoy callers. (…) Police controls are rare, and court decisions against the few convicted bird trappers are usually at the bottom of the penalty line”.

Timeline of events:

1st May 2004: Malta joins the EU. The EU’s legislation on wild bird conservation became binding, but Malta is allowed to phase out finch trapping and replace it with a captive breeding programme.

2008: Arrangement expires. 

2009-2013: Trapping is prohibited in Malta.

2013: FKNK submits a request to reopen trapping season following the change of government.

2014: Government reopens trapping season in autumn.

2018: The European Court of Justice issued the first ruling on Malta’s finch trapping practice. In its ruling, it said that the government did not prove that no alternative solution exists and that insufficient evidence meant arguments that trapping affects a small number of birds could not be substantiated.

2020: Malta’s government started declaring research derogations for trapping. 

2024: EU court issues ruling on research derogation, finding that Malta’s authorities did not prove a lack of viable alternative, and “there is no mention of other standard scientific means of research in the ornithological field”

2025: Legal notice 251 removes a requirement for rings to only be obtained from bird ringing schemes approved by EURING. Trappers now allowed to use live decoys.

The European Commission’s infringement case against the research derogation remains active. The Commission has sent a letter of formal notice for failing to comply with the judgement. The Commission may decide to refer Malta back to the Court of Justice of the European Union, with a request to impose financial sanctions. The Commission’s spokesperson said, “The Commission is assessing the available information before deciding on next steps”.

Does the derogation follow a research methodology?

Official bird ringers, under the EURING umbrella, ring finches in the countries where they breed. The WBRU argues that the birds are not followed as they migrate, and the Maltese “research project is what renders the effort invested by bird-ringers in other countries to ring finches worthwhile”.

To participate in the scheme, trappers must check for scientific rings, a process called ‘control’. 

Participating trappers are “instructed and examined on the procedure”, and captured finches are “immediately released unharmed back into the wild”, “including those that are “not fitted with a scientific ring or satellite-tag”.

In Malta, bird ringing was previously carried out by Birdlife Malta, the only partner of EURING. The legal notice now allows licensing & ringing from any “qualified trainer who is part of a bird ringing scheme”.

In a December 2024 statement, EURING said that the Maltese trapping research project “is unlikely to provide useful scientific data on a reasonable timescale, and that the poor-quality data being gathered does not meet acceptable scientific or ethical standards.” 

“The intensity of finch trapping that is being undertaken is likely to have major impacts on bird movements and behaviour, and is therefore not compatible with studying the natural movement patterns of these species,” it continued.

Nicholas Galea heads Birdlife’s EURING-approved ringing scheme in Malta, with 29 licensed ringers on the islands. According to the government’s 2023 report to the European Commission, Birdlife ringed 20,847 birds in 2023. 

“We are not against research, but we are against the use of research as a disguise,” he told Amphora Media, confirming that in previous seasons he verified the trappers’ information on ringed birds after it is passed to him.

“Data is always data, and information is information,” he said, adding that this does not mean he approves of the capturing method.

Amphora Media spoke to Kaċċaturi San Ubertu’s (KSU) secretary Adrian Cauchi. KSU “practices a policy of zero tolerance towards any hunting illegalities and vets all of its members prior to acceptance.”

“I would have expected EURING to jump on the possibility be there, supervise, offer their expertise and influence, as much as possible, to the legislator to carry out the best activities for the birds,” Cauchi said, adding “why not involve trappers if you really want to convert them, if you really want to ensure that you know exactly what they’re doing, why not get them under your umbrella rather than push them as far away as possible?”

In previous seasons, Birdlife declined government requests for ringers to accompany the trapping scheme, citing the disparity in numbers between trappers and ringers.

“With 10 trappers and ringers, it’s fine. (…) But [the government] always wants 4,000 trappers and one or two ringers, which means the others will always do what they want,” Galea said.

Amphora Media also spoke to Mark-Anthony Falzon, the former chairman of the Ornis Committee (2014-2017), an advisory board made up of hunters, trappers, conservationists and government appointees.  In 2014, Falzon abstained from the vote on allowing the trapping derogation but defended the position. However, he is critical of the research derogation.

“To do research, you need researchers. (…) Trappers are not scientists. They are not trained in any scientific method. Bird ringers are not scientists either (…) but they follow the scientific method tightly regulated by EURING,” he said.

“For a trapper to release what they have just caught is unthinkable. It’s like winning the lottery and tearing up your ticket. (…) Some of these birds are highly prized.”

Have the trappers produced quality data?

A Wild Birds Regulation Unit’s 2024 report states that 4,105 General Licences for Live-Capturing of birds were issued. 

In addition to collecting research forms filled by trappers, the WBRU commissioned surveys of migratory finches by two scientists with marine ecology specialisations.

One of the objectives was “to correlate migration data gathered through the present survey with bag data for the relevant species, should any live-capturing derogations or research derogation be applied during the autumn season of the contracted years.”

However, the authors said “the two sets were collected for different purposes, using very different methodologies, and therefore the magnitude of values are not directly comparable” which is required for “robust and rigorous assessment”. 

For example, on some days, trappers caught over 200 common linnets and 50 common chaffinches. In contrast, staff at monitoring stations across Malta counted up to 10 common linnets and even fewer common chaffinches per day – sometimes none. 

Malta submits yearly derogation reports to the European Commission. This is what the trappers have found over the years, according to these reports.

Reports to the Commission reveal that across thousands of trapping sites, trappers “controlled” only 40 ringed finches, and a fifth of them had already been caught by bird ringers in Malta.

A comparison with the government contractor’s data, suggests trapping hundreds of finches has resulted in very few ring recoveries, including only one in 2022. Trappers also send reports on rings that EURING was unable to verify.

EURING’s data Amphora had access to shows that out of 64 ring records submitted between 2020 and 2024, 18 had flaws: unclear country of origin, untraceable ring number, unknown scheme, or suspicious bird properties.

Fourteen birds carried a Maltese ring, but in several cases, trappers incorrectly recorded ring numbers. Ten of the birds had already been confiscated from trappers and apparently re-trapped.

“You can’t have 4,000 trapper-ringers all active at the same time in such a small country, because the same birds will be caught and caught all over again causing too much disturbance and stress,” Galea said.

“It’s difficult to decipher what people submitted. Sometimes they catch birds with our rings, and I cannot conclude which one it is. And really, what they’ve been discovering is that they’ve discovered nothing new.” Before trapping was outlawed, Birdlife Malta had already collected and published data on finches from trappers.

A search on Google Scholar for the listed finch species, the mention of Malta and WBRU did not return ornithology or biology articles, except for one that was about ticks in birds and was co-authored by Nicholas Galea.

KSU has implemented turtle dove satellite tagging projects, which Cauchi cites as an example of how traditional trappers can be retrained and benefit research. “The trapper was happy. The traditional method was kept, and this study and the research part was kept as well.”

The Ministry of Gozo and Planning did not respond to Amphora’s questions, and neither did FKNK.

Has the research effort reduced illegal trapping?

One of the conditions of applicable European laws for issuing derogations is that the practice must be appropriately supervised. But enforcement resources have been gradually reduced over the years, Malta’s derogation reports to the European Commission reveal.

The number of officers dropped from a maximum of 64 to a maximum of 53 between 2020 and 2023; as has the number of vehicles from 15 to 9. 

The EU’s court found that “In the context of Malta, characterised by a very high density of licence holders […] the fact that merely 23% of hunters have been subject to individual checks seems inadequate”.

The Malta Ranger Unit has recorded alleged instances of illegal trapping of protected species, use of illegal devices, and trapping outside the permitted hours. In a recent case, illegalities reported by the MRU led to a conviction of a trapper and cancellation of his licence.

Camilla Appelgren, from the MRU, told Amphora Media that officers often lacked training and coordination. At the same time, trappers allegedly had extensive networks of CCTV cameras and spotters to monitor NGO and police presence.

“There are times we don’t have any environmental police, and the district police don’t take environmental cases, so there is no one to call,” she said. 

During the first days of the season MRU, Birdlife and police collaborated in an operation which led tthe o confiscation of illegally used equipment, including electronic bird callers, and unattended clap nets.

Gozo, meanwhile, presents a separate issue altogether. Data shows that contraventions are minimal compared to Malta. In 2023, there were 50 contraventions in Malta, compared to 12 in Gozo.

“With respect to hunting and trapping, it’s an open secret, really, that in Gozo, there is much less law enforcement, and police find it very hard to do their job,” Falzon added.

Galea and Appelgren warned that trappers inform each other of police presence, especially in Gozo”.

Enforcement Figures (Source: WBRU): 

On 16th October, a trapper from Mgarr, caught in September 2022, was sentenced and had his trapping licence revoked for three years, CABS said in a press release. CABS members went to court as witnesses.

Between 2014 and 2024, the NGO’s reports resulted in 298 prosecutions for trapping illegalities. Out of those, 187 trappers were convicted, and “thousands” of birds were seized”.

Cauchi of KSU disagrees that policing levels are low. “You’ll see the police every day, twice, three times a day,” he said. His view is that illegalities are decreasing, but evidence collection methods have improved, and more of them make it to court.

“We should let authorities work and one of the key objectives is to ensure that trappers become researchers in their entirety. These things require a generational change. [An octogenarian] is a difficult person to change. I’m the next generation. I’m a converted man. I would very happily, very happily give all my [hunting and trapping] licences and just do ringing.”

He suggests that, contrary to popular view, KSU, as a hunters’ and trappers’ organisation practices discipline and enforcement internally. 

“We don’t go and say these things on Facebook, but we do it in our own circles. The results speak for themselves in terms of targeting of protected species.” He would like to see court-mandated courses to rehabilitate perpetrators of illegal trapping.

Police spokesperson did not reply  to Amphora Media’s questions.

Is trapping environmentally sustainable?

Superimposing the map of 2024’s licensed trapping sites on the map of Natura 2000 sites, which is allowed in Malta, reveals significant overlaps. Trappers can catch birds along the entire protected Southwestern coast of Malta and Southern Gozo. Trapping sites next to bird sanctuaries can also be found.  The EU’s court criticised the decision.

Appelgren of MRU reports having observed cases where trappers clear vegetation, drastically reducing biodiversity at the sites they use. “It’s worse than hunting, they kill their land, and so that nothing will grow, and they keep them barren for the purpose of trapping birds,”she said.

In 2014, the FKNK acknowledged the use of agricultural pesticides but claimed this “can easily be reversed”.

Falzon doesn’t see a reason why Natura 2000 protection should exclude trapping. “So you have people fishing, you have people walking dogs and a million other things. Why not trapping?”

Asked about the matter, the European Commission’s spokesperson said that “The Commission has no information on the practice in question.”

Falzon warns that rampant development will likely spell the demise of the trapping hobby. “In the past there were trapping sites all over the place. Now there are far fewer” .

Cauchi of KSU believes that unsustainable agricultural practices threaten finches, and that there is scope for trappers and conservationists coming together to protect birds. “I’d be willing to sit down with another moderate individual, but I cannot sit down with someone whose idea is abolishing hunting and trapping,” he said.

The government’s claims to allow trapping as a scientific derogation are misleading. 

The research derogation has resulted in few ring recoveries and, despite hundreds of birds caught and dozens of rings recorded. Trappers’ data has not been cited in published scientific literature that could be found on Google Scholar. Many of the recovered rings belong to birds already caught in Malta. Trappers’ representatives consider that ringer’s refusal to cooperate explains it.

Police presence remains weak, especially in Gozo, while monitoring 4,000 trappers is a major logistical challenge. Many experts, including those in favour of trapping, said the derogation is a guise and that quality data is not being produced. However, KSU expressed willingness to shift its trapper members to ringers in the future.

Rather, as Mark Anthony Falzon puts it:

“[Trapping] is a practice that I think should be absolutely valued for what it is. Malta should make its case that this is a local practice that has value. This is why this deception is going to fail.”

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

• Cruise ships in Malta’s Grand Harbour connected to the onshore power supply system just 9% of the time in the first year
• Cruise vessel traffic and arrivals continue to rise annually, now at over 940,000 visitors, raising doubts about whether overall air pollution is actually decreasing compared to the years prior.
• Shorter stays saw higher OPS use: 19% of ships berthed for a day or less plugged in, while none of those docked for longer than two days did.
• MSC World Europa accounted for just over half of OPS connections, yet failed to plug in on several occasions.
• Carnival Corporation’s liners used the technology only 6 times out of 58 calls, despite contractual obligations and available equipment.
• The 45% of port arrivals occur at 7am or earlier, intensifying early-morning noise and air pollution in nearby communities.
• The Senglea air monitoring station — which tracked near- real-time particulate matter — was removed in October 2024, reducing both monitoring of a ‘crucial’ pollutant and transparency in air quality monitoring around the Grand Harbour.
• Local residents continue to raise health concerns, with the Southern Harbour region recording the highest asthma hospital discharge rate in Malta between 2017 and 2022.
• Costs, grid stability, and outdated ship technology as possible reasons for low OPS uptake.

After a year in service, Malta’s Onshore Power Supply (OPS) system was used by cruise ships just 9% of the time, according to an analysis by Amphora Media.

That translates to roughly five and a half minutes per hour for every cruise ship berthing in the Grand Harbour. 

Using publicly available data from the Valletta Cruise Port website and records on OPS (shore-to-ship) connections obtained from Transport Malta through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Amphora Media was able to calculate the total percentage of time vessels plugged in between July 2024 – when the ship-to-shore system in the Grand Harbour kicked off – and July 2025. 

The data also shows that, as the number of cruise ships plugging into the OPS continues to gain momentum, the flow of cruise ships berthing in Malta’s Grand Harbour is also increasing annually.

The technology for cruise liners, launched by the government in 2024 and co-funded by the European Union, allows vessels to plug into the national power grid, instead of generating power from their own engines, slashing harmful pollutant emissions.

It was launched nine months prior to the EU setting a 2030 deadline for maritime ports to install onshore power supply infrastructure and for vessels to plug in.

Shore-to-ship promises to slash 90% of air pollution from berthed cruise ships in the Grand Harbour for roughly 17,000 people who live in the surrounding areas. 

Research by the organisation Transport & Environment shows that the shipping sector is one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution.

It is estimated to be responsible for more than 250,000 premature deaths per year worldwide, from cancer and cardiovascular diseases alone. And while all ship types have an environmental and climate impact, air pollution from cruise ships is particularly worrying, Transport & Environment highlights.

OPS Was Not Used for Longer Stays

Within the one-year period analysed by Amphora Media – between July 10th 2024 and July 10th 2025 – there were 373 cruise ship berths in the Grand Harbour. Out of these, the vessels plugged into the shore-to-ship technology 67 times, and not always for the complete duration of the stay.

Out of the total number of vessels at the port (without calculating power supply usage):

• 312 were berthed for one day or less 
• 38 were berthed between one and two days
• 23 were berthed for between two to four days

Our analysis shows that cruise ships were more likely to plug into the onshore power supply when berthing for one day or less (19.6% compared to 16.2% and 0%). No cruise ships that were berthed for two to four days used the technology.

Shipping giant MSC, which co-owns Palumbo Malta Shipyard LTD, located within the same waters, plugged into Malta’s system over half (35) of the total 67 instances in which the system was used, with its MSC World Europa cruise ship. However, the same cruise ship did not plug into the OPS on another 16 occasions when it was berthed. 

Asked by Amphora Media why they would decide to plug-in on some occasions but not on others, the company did not reply.

Since signing a ‘‘shore power agreement’ with the Maltese government, Carnival Corporation’s cruise liners only made use of the technology 6 out of 58 times berthing in the Grand Harbour, even in the cases where the vessel has shown the capability to plug in.

For example, the cruise vessel Costa Fascinosa plugged into the OPS technology on 13th June 2025, however, it did not make use of the technology during its following three berths in the port between June and July. Similarly, Aida Diva plugged into the system on 1st April 2025 but not on 8th April 2025.

In a request for comment, Transport Malta explained that Carnival Corporation connected to the OPS infrastructure for “testing and commissioning purposes to obtain the necessary certification” as “Onshore Power Supply ready”, adding that “once this process is completed, the vessels will be able to use the system routinely.” Carnival Corporation echoed the same justification.

Transport Malta turned down Amphora Media’s request for a copy of the shore power agreement, citing “strict” confidentiality due to its “commercial nature”.

Number of Cruise Ships and Passengers in Grand Harbour on the Rise Again

Following a near-standstill of cruise ship activity during the COVID-19 year 2020, the number of cruise ships berthing in the Grand Harbour have been increasing annually, with the number of passengers hitting record figures in 2024 and registering quasi-pre-pandemic levels in terms of cruise vessel calls.

Valletta Cruise Port figures show 357 cruise liner calls in 2024. That’s up from 312 calls in 2023 and 283 in 2022, and slightly lower than the 372 calls logged in 2019.

Meanwhile, passenger numbers also hit new all-time highs: 940,915 in 2024, compared with 889,336 in 2023 and just 147,132 in 2021, and more than the 902,425 recorded in 2019.

This means that for overall air pollution in the area to decline, the emissions avoided through OPS must outweigh the added emissions from the rising number of berthed ships

The government celebrates this constant growth in cruise arrivals. However, residents in the area who are concerned about the impact fumes spewing out of the ships are having on their health do not share the same jovial tone.

For Alex, a resident who has been living in Floriana for over a decade, the growing presence of cruise ships has led to increased noise pollution and a growing concern about the impact this surge in numbers is having on his own health and that of the rest of the community. 

“Now they [cruise ships] come in at 5:30am in the morning,” he told Amphora Media. “Sometimes the whole building shakes … just to give you an idea of the impact”.

Data collected by Amphora Media indicates that 45% of port call arrivals occur at 7am or earlier, with the earliest port arrivals occurring at 4:30am.

Together with other residents, Alex started a Facebook group called ‘Clean Air for the Grand Harbour’, and since then has lent an ear to residents, who have noticed a decline in their respiratory health, among other concerns.

Figures can back up the reality of respiratory issues for residents surrounding the Grand Harbour. 

Data on asthma as a primary or secondary discharge diagnosis from Mater Dei Hospital between 2017 and 2022, made available to Amphora Media, shows that on average, the Southern Harbour region – which includes Floriana, Valletta, The Three Cities, and other towns surrounding the Grand Harbour – was the district with the highest discharge rates.

The region experienced 1.18 diagnoses per 1000 people over the six years, followed by an average of 0.95 in the Northern district and 0.91 in the Northern Harbour district.

Infrastructure Malta, the agency overseeing the shift to OPS technology, had in fact stated in 2023 that “17,000 families residing around the Grand Harbour area” would benefit from cleaner air through the investment. 

The Environment Ministry did not reply to questions by Amphora Media on the matter.

The reasons not to use the OPS system today may vary.

Francisco Ferreira, President of the Portuguese NGO Zero, which closely monitors the development of OPS systems in Portugal, explained that vessels are not yet equipped with the technology or choose not to connect, as plugging in is often more expensive than running on their own fuel.

Transport Malta reiterated that before the 2030 obligation designated by the new EU law, “subject to the condition that vessels comply with emission requirements, connecting to the onshore power, at this stage, remains the prerogative of the shipping line.” According to Ferreira, one of the biggest challenges for cruise lines is retrofitting their fleets.

“In many cases, if you have an old ship, it’s better to scrap it than retrofit it. It’s better to buy or build a new one. (…) The problem we see in this industry is the very slow pace of transformation from the current fleet to one capable of connecting to onshore power supply.”

He also stressed the importance of competitive pricing for OPS. “If the cost difference is too high, retrofitting becomes more attractive to operators than continuing to rely on diesel while at berth,” he said.

The Transport Ministry did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions on the prices Malta has currently for the use of the OPS infrastructure.

Senglea Air Monitoring Station Removed, and Particulate Matter Monitoring Removed With It

As cruise ships in the Grand Harbour increase, and OPS technology use remains low, the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA)’s mobile air monitoring station in Senglea has been removed, along with its near-real-time monitoring data, which was available for the public to view online.

Questioned about the absence of the monitor, a spokesperson for ERA confirmed the removal to Amphora Media.

“The mobile station was intended to be located there for a specific period to collect enough samples to be able to perform a study on any impact shipping in the Grand Harbour may have on air quality,” the spokesperson said. “This monitoring exercise was completed and removed from Senglea at the end of October 2024.”

The air quality in the area is now only monitored through the passive diffusive tube network, meaning that as of October last year, residents surrounding the Grand Harbour do not have access to monitor air pollution in the area in real-time.  

The passive diffusion tube network monitors the Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Benzene levels around the island. The mobile monitoring stations, meanwhile, additionally calculate Particulate Matter (PM) levels and Ozone (O3) levels, among others. 

In a conversation with Amphora Media, BirdLife Malta’s Head of Conservation, Nicholas Barbara, explained that monitoring particulate matter is “crucial” for monitoring the impact of the air pollution on the health of people in the area, and there is no other way to monitor PM levels other than through live monitoring. 

BirdLife Malta has been one of the local NGOs at the forefront of advocating for clean air in the area.

“If they are going back to the diffuser only, they are not measuring the particulate matter at all.” he said. 

Barbara argued that the government should now be thinking of a more permanent setup to continue the monitoring efforts that were covered by the Senglea monitor, since “the cruise ship industry is not going to go [anywhere], for sure, in the coming years”.

By the time of publication, ERA did not reply to questions on the absence of monitoring particulate matter in the area and the Environment Ministry did not reply to questions about the decrease in monitoring in the area.

Potential Strain on National Grid Could Be Legitimate Reason Not to Connect to OPS Under New EU Law

Concerns about the stability of Malta’s national grid in relation to OPS technology have been raised since the introduction of the new system.

Last year, it made headlines after Prime Minister Robert Abela pointed to it as one of the reasons why the power grid was under pressure.

In July, the Nationalist Party also questioned the stability and reliability of the shore-to-ship power supply after alleging that cruise liners suffered power outages while connected to the national grid – allegations that Transport Malta and Enemalta denied. 

Under the new EU law, vessels will be allowed not to plug in to OPS systems in cases where they are “unable to connect to OPS because, exceptionally, the electrical grid stability is at risk, due to insufficient available shore-power to satisfy the ship’s required electrical power demand at berth.”

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia; in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente; in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

• Tourism has more than doubled in a decade. Now at 3.5 million a year, or an average of 62,000 extra people per day.
• Today, there are more than 9,300 active listings on Airbnb.
• Short-term rentals now make up a third of the tourist accommodation market.
• The market generates an estimated €47 million over a year.
• Sliema’s Airbnb market is the largest, worth €7.3 million, followed by St Julian’s (€5 million) and St Paul’s Bay (€3.8 million).
• In Valletta alone, 1 in 6 homes is part of the tourism market. In tourism hotspots, like Sliema, Gżira and others, that number is now at 1 in 10.
• Nearly 200 clusters where multiple short-lets are concentrated in a single building or street.
• Four main arteries in Sliema, Tower Road, The Strand, Triq Robert Arrigo, and Triq Manwel Dimech, host 401 Airbnb listings.
• Local councils report mounting complaints over waste, noise, vandalism, and safety, while revenues eclipse budgets.

Malta now boasts more than 9,300 active listings on Airbnb alone, a figure that underscores just how deeply short-term rentals have reshaped the island’s housing landscape, with some localities carrying a disproportionate share of the burden.

Amphora Media’s latest investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fuelling growing tensions within residential communities.

Malta’s tourism, one of the seven priority sectors promoted by the government, has doubled in a decade. The number of visitors has soared from around 1.6 million in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2024, equivalent to an extra 62,000 people in the country every day.

Accommodating this surge has pushed thousands to convert private residences into tourist lets. According to NSO, in 2024, the number of tourists staying in ‘other rental accommodation’, under which short-lets fall, exceeded a million.

It now accounts for 33% of the total market, and the figure is growing. The number of tourists staying at hotels and other collective accommodation has also increased over the period, but their share has dropped by 10% over the last five years.

The market can be highly lucrative. Inside Airbnb data reveals that Malta-based listings generate an estimated €47.3 million annually.

Yet, most of the money fails to reach the localities and communities.

For example, estimates based on Inside Airbnb’s data show that the Airbnb market in Sliema, one of the localities overburdened by tourism, generates an estimated revenue of over €7.3 million – dwarfing the 2024 Sliema local council’s annual budget of around €1.6 million. The 2024 budget for local councils was €48.4 million across 68 localities.

The strain is being felt at the community level. 

From waste to noise complaints, alleged vandalism and fears over public safety, frustrations are mounting, with residents in Swieqi even taking to the streets in protest.

“Malta has a reputation abroad as a place where everyone does what they want – everyone smokes cannabis, everyone breaks things – that’s the reputation Malta has,” says St Julian’s mayor Guido Dalli.

“[Short lets are] the most difficult thing, not only in Marsaskala, but around Malta,” Marsaskala mayor Mario Calleja told Amphora. In 2022, his local council was receiving 16 weekly complaints about rubbish on average. 

“And why do we have these mishaps? The owners of these apartments do not inform tourists of the proper days to dispose of waste. They just take it out on whatever day. This is the most common problem for local councils.”

In response to parliamentary questions about Airbnbs disrespecting municipal waste collection schedules, Owen Bonnici, in charge of local government, replied with promises to distribute information stickers and increase enforcement.

Swieqi: A residential neighbourhood transformed

“If residents are happy, tourists will come,” says veteran hospitality expert Marie Avellino. But protests, petitions and media reporting about locals’ grievances show that for many locals, mingling with tourists is less than a happy experience.

Even the government’s tourism 2021-2030 strategy acknowledges that the “signs of uneasiness by local residents having to cohabit with tourists accommodated in residential apartment blocks or similar” is one of the ‘areas of concern’ 

Swieqi, once a quiet residential suburb neighbouring St Julian’s, has morphed into a hotspot for short-term rentals, a byproduct of its proximity to Paceville, Malta’s nightlife capital, which has gained notoriety online for clips of rowdy tourist behaviour. 

Over a third of Swieqi listings mention Paceville in their description. Some listings even warn that the proximity to Paceville makes the place unsuitable for families and older people.

Airbnb did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions about these developments.

Our analysis shows 432 active Airbnb listings in Swieqi, accounting for approximately 6% of all livable residences in the area. That figure excludes other platforms such as Booking.com, for which we could not obtain comparable data. 

Davcar Developments Ltd, whose brand is Holiday Letting Malta, is a major player, with 80 active listings, 62 in Swieqi. 360 Group comes next with 24 properties in Swieqi, but their estimated revenues are the largest, approaching €99,000 in Swieqi alone.

Cross-checking the numbers with Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) records suggests that, by conservative estimates, more than 9% of Swieqi rentals are unlicensed.

In August, weeks before a protest over the issue took place, an activist who asked to be called JC reached out to Booking.com and Airbnb to complain about suspicious listings and the negative impact of short-lets.

In response to our questions, Booking.com said, “In the very rare instance that we are made aware of any unlawful behaviour taking place at a property listed on our site – including house parties – we investigate thoroughly, cooperate with local authorities or law enforcement, and when necessary block the customer account from our platform.”

“We also have a solid process in place for authorities to report any concerns, taking swift action to remove properties if they are found not to be operating in compliance with local laws.”

MTA did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Valletta: built by gentlemen, housed for short lets

The rise of short-term rentals has reshaped neighbourhoods while directly draining the supply of homes available to residents.

Historically, tourist accommodation in Malta concentrated along the coast, as tour operators channelled their sun-seeking clients for standard-length holidays at beachside hotels.

However, in 2006, low-cost airlines began operating in Malta, attracting city break seekers. To keep up with the demand, short-term rentals have soared, now comprising a third of the market.

In Valletta, Malta’s state and cultural capital, nearly 570 properties are listed on Airbnb, meaning around one in six liveable homes in the city is now part of the tourism market.

According to official statistics, Valletta is in second place in terms of tourism intensity, with its effective population in 2023 nearly doubling.

This is mainly driven by tourists. Census data shows that as of 2023, Valletta has just over 5,000 residents, smaller than what it was in 2013. A fifth of them are over 70 years of age.

The five largest operators have 130 listings among them.

VREM Ltd has the largest portfolio in Valletta, with an estimated annual revenue of around €108,000 from the city. Valletta Vintage emerged as the highest earner, estimated to generate over €324,000 per year with just 10 listings.

The combined revenue of the top 10 earners from Airbnb exceeds the 2024 allocation to the Valletta local council from the central government.

“The private sector is proliferating in residential zones, which is clashing with the community,” says Valletta resident Billy McBee, who founded Residenti Beltin and unsuccessfully ran for the last local elections with this movement.

“I remember a time when we used to have good quality tourists. I mean, very respectful ones, they used to leave tips, they used to go for retail, but the quality kind, you know, they never gave any problems to anyone. Nowadays, you get horrible quality tourists.”

“Waste management is quite an issue. If the private sector truly honours the private collection, then there wouldn’t be any problem. But during summer, you’ve got pests, cockroaches, rats, smells, and liquids. These are really, literally getting out of hand,” he says.

In 2024, 44 waste contraventions were issued in Valletta, and three resulted in court cases. Valletta’s budget for waste disposal and refuse collection was €120,000 in 2024.

We asked 12 major operators about their approach to licensing, neighbourhood disturbance policy, and waste management. None of them replied.

“You have nightlife, without ensuring enforcement,” McBee continued. “They [policymakers] keep adding so many things to the pot, which is now boiling. People are getting fed up. Valletta is not managing its infrastructure, like energy, electrical waste management, drainage system, and traffic.”

MTA did not reply to questions about licensing so many short lets in Valletta.

Sliema, St Julian’s, Gżira and St Paul’s Bay: Localities overwhelmed

Swieqi and Valletta, however, are far from the worst affected. Sliema tops the list with 1,268 Airbnb properties, followed by St Paul’s Bay with 1,007 and St Julian’s with 947. The next highest concentrations are in Gżira (684) and Valletta (569).

In Gżira, Sliema and St Julian’s, roughly one in ten liveable homes is now listed on Airbnb.

Estimates from Inside Airbnb data show that Sliema’s Airbnb market is the largest, worth €7.3 million. Airbnb listings are estimated to generate around €5 million in St Julian’s and €3.8 million in St Paul’s Bay.

The numbers also reveal heavy clustering. In nearly 200 cases, multiple listings are concentrated within the same location, suggesting that operators may run residential buildings as de facto hotels, but with fewer regulations or oversight than traditional accommodation providers must follow.

St Julian’s, Sliema and St Paul’s Bay top that list with 69, 68, and 68 listings in such clusters, respectively.

The concentration of short-term rentals is starkest at street level. In Sliema alone, four main arteries, Tower Road, The Strand, Triq Robert Arrigo and Triq Manwel Dimech, account for 401 listings between them.

Tower Road tops the national list with 145 Airbnbs, followed by The Strand with 114. Similar patterns emerge elsewhere: Triq d’Argens in Gżira hosts 70, while St Julian’s has three streets, Ġorġ Borġ Olivier, St George and Triq Spinola, each exceeding 50 listings.

Gżira Mayor Neville Chetcuti warns that, similar to Valletta, there is a larger transformation of his locality set in action.

“It’s an ageing population in Gżira. There aren’t many young people, obviously, because every place is being demolished and rebuilt into hotels or flats or guesthouses. So they move out of here, and the number keeps going down,” he told Amphora Media.

A Battle on Two Fronts: Poor Enforcement In Communities Facing Overtourism And Overpopulation

Many localities facing the burden of over-tourism are facing challenges from a ballooning population, despite significant gaps in enforcement.

St Julian’s and Swieqi fall under the same police district, yet between 2013 and 2025, the number of officers assigned there fell by four despite the locality being under “very high risk” of crime. This decline comes despite a sharp rise in demand: police reports in the district increased by 2,670, from 5,937 in 2020 to 8,607 in 2024.

Meanwhile, across Malta, the number of noise complaint reports has increased over the years, climbing from 341 in 2021 to 473 in 2024. 

Nowhere is the strain felt more than in Paceville. Despite being Malta’s nightlife hub, notorious on social media for clips of drunken brawls, vandalism and public urination, it has no police station of its own.

Instead, the St Julian’s station and Swieqi officers serve as first points of contact for those requiring police intervention in the area.

The government has refused to disclose exactly how many officers are deployed in Paceville. Replying to a parliamentary question in May, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said only that numbers “vary according to the need and particular circumstances”, noting that patrols there include district and community police as well as the Rapid Intervention Unit.

He also promised that a CCTV network for Paceville would finally be operational by next summer.

Valletta, which has become its own entertainment hub in the years before and following V18, faces similar shortages. Police numbers in its district fell by 32 between 2013 and 2025, even as incident reports to the police rose by 797 between 2020 and 2024.

Sliema, Gżira and Msida, grouped together in Police District 7, are also under strain. The district, which combines dense residential areas with heavy tourist inflows, has 67 officers in total. 

With a total population of 49,000, that means there’s one officer for every 731 residents. According to Euronews, the EU had an average of 341 police officers per 100,000 people, or one officer every 293 residents.

In response to parliamentary questions about Airbnbs disrespecting municipal waste collection schedules, Owen Bonnici, in charge of local government, replied with promises to increase enforcement for those disposing of waste on the wrong day.

“I’m not saying Maltese don’t litter, because they do as well, but the majority for sure are tourists. Especially those in short lets, they’re the ones who cause the most problems,” Gżira mayor Neville Chetcuti told Amphora Media.

Tourism researcher Avellino cautions against blaming tourists for the waste problem when the door-to-door collection system confuses them. 

“Imagine that as a tourist, I don’t know what to do with the garbage bag. I walk along the streets and see garbage bags outside. ‘Ah, that’s what people do there! Okay, I will do the same.’ And they think they’re doing a good thing,” she said.

Tourism’s growth “places stress on key resources”, Deloitte acknowledged in a carrying capacity study, published in 2022. “Already at 2019 tourism levels, tourists’ and residents’ satisfaction were impacted by excess volume,” the study’s authors noted.

“Key issues impacting both residents and tourists (to varying degrees) include traffic, littering, waste management, poor urban environment (overcrowding, overdevelopment and uglification) and the lack of authenticity of experience,” Deloitte noted. In response to the negative effects, there are increasing calls to calculate touristic locations’ carrying capacity again. 

Avellino warns that this may not be a silver bullet.

“Carrying capacity changes. It’s not like you’ve got an apartment with three bedrooms, therefore the carrying capacity of that apartment is six persons.”

She says that coming up with an objective figure of how much tourism the islands can sustain is very difficult, and even if it could be done, it may upset some:

“Governments and politicians traditionally went by volume. So if the carrying capacity exercise had to be done – and it’s very complex to do it – and all of a sudden the carrying capacity, for example, turns out to be two million tourists – it hurts them.”

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

• Approximately 1 in 5 Airbnb listings in Malta lack an MTA licence.
• Hotspots such as Gżira (46%), Sliema (30%), and St Paul’s Bay (28%) show even higher rates.
• MTA enforcement is struggling to keep up with the pace of the market.
• Between 2022 and 2023, not a single license was revoked.
• From 2026, new EU law will require platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com to share detailed monthly data with authorities.

Malta’s tourist boom is spilling far beyond its hotels and guesthouses. From Marsaxlokk to Mellieħa, ordinary homes are being converted into holiday rentals on Airbnb – often without a license and outside the very rules meant to regulate them.

Our investigation shows that about one in five listings across the island of Malta are unlicensed. The picture is starker in the main tourist hubs: nearly a third of all listings in Sliema and St Paul’s Bay are unlicensed, rising to almost half in Gżira.

Still, enforcement remains lacking, with officials expected to monitor all of Malta and Gozo’s catering establishments, kiosks, travel agencies and other establishments, not including the over 9,300 listings on Airbnb alone.

Amphora Media’s investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, shows that almost every fifth liveable dwelling in Valletta, every ninth in St Julian’s, and every tenth in Sliema and Gzira has been converted into a short-let rentals advertised on Airbnb.

In Malta, the law clearly states that no one can run a holiday premises without the proper licence. When Airbnb listings include a field for licence numbers, it is tracked by Inside Airbnb. However, this field was blank across all listings in Malta.

On its website, Airbnb says, “the absence of a registration number does not mean the Host is not compliant—they’re just not required to register.” 

In Istanbul, which was the focus of our partner’s investigation, the licence field was active and licence numbers were visible. Airbnb did not explain why Maltese listings do not show license numbers.

Calculating the absent licences

Our analysis is based on a conservative estimate of the gap between listings advertised and licences issued by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA). To get a licence, properties must comply with rules on minimum bathrooms per person, emergency exits and lighting, and even a refuse collection service.

For holiday premises of the standard class, the annual licensing fee is €130 per year per unit if it is in Malta and €104 if in Gozo – a higher rate is charged for villas with pools and farmhouses; lower fees per unit are charged for clusters of various sizes.

A new EU law, which will apply from next year, will require large short-let platforms to send monthly data about this market to authorities. 

“Cities are experiencing a spike in illegal short-term holiday rentals. This is making cities across Europe harder to live in and less affordable,” MEP Kim Van Sparrentak, who led the European Parliament’s work on the new law, said when it was adopted.

As part of the investigation, Amphora Media and partners analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, and publicly available government and census data to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fuelling growing tensions within residential communities.

Inside Airbnb has collected data on over 9,300 active listings advertised on Airbnb in Malta. Separately, Inside Airbnb collected data on hosts who identified as businesses and provided their details to Airbnb.

Read more about how short lets are reshaping Malta

MTA’s list of short-term rental licenses shows nearly 80,000 bed covers across 7,552 establishments. Among them, 7,116 are holiday homes. Guesthouses and hotels can also advertise on Airbnb.

Our analysis indicates that in some areas of Malta, nearly half of the Airbnb listings are unlicensed. 

From the total 9,376 active listings found on Inside Airbnb’s database, 50 listings could be traced to licensed hotels, 79 listings identified themselves as rooms in hotels or b&bs.

This is a conservative estimate, subtracting the number of MTA-licensed holiday homes from the total number of listings, after we identified & removed all collective accommodations and any listings that could not be confirmed or otherwise identified as such (390).

In Malta: 

There are 8,044 active listings.

With 5,649 officially licensed holiday homes, it is estimated that around 1,925 listings are likely to be unlicensed – a quarter of all listings of the island and one in every 500 livable homes.

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) puts that figure even higher. Using data from VRBO to supplement that of Airbnb, an MHRA study conducted by Deloitte estimated that there could be as many as 10,043 short-term rental properties, around half of which are licensed.

“Alternatively, if one were to consider NSOs data on guest nights spent in private rented accommodation during the peak July and August period, then there should be at least 8,900 – 10,000 private rented accommodation units available to support the market demand,” the report reads. 

The data on unlicensed short-term rentals in Gozo is more complicated, hinting that many short-lets, licensed or unlicensed, are not advertised on Airbnb.

Gozo has 1,332 listings on the platform, but there are 1,465 MTA licences for holiday homes in Gozo. A search on Booking.com for a two-person stay at “Entire homes & apartments”, “holiday homes”, “apartments” or “villas” shows a total of 1,261 properties in Gozo.

MTA enforcement is not keeping up with the surging supply

Limited enforcement by the Malta Tourism Authority has led to a proliferation of unlicensed holiday accommodation providers.

According to data tabled in parliament, MTA carried out 1,771 inspections on new licensees and 2,839 routine inspections in 2023. However, this covers the licensing of catering establishments, kiosks, travel operators and other establishments.

Meanwhile, there were just 474 inspections based on complaints in 2023. That’s over nine a week, despite there being an estimated 62,000 tourists on Malta’s streets every single day. 

The numbers for Gozo are even weaker, with just 32 inspections on complaints across a calendar year. The southern region is even less, at just 24.

In 2022-2023, no licence was revoked. 

Between January and March 2024, 250 tourist rentals were inspected. Details on whether any fines were issued or whether any licenses were revoked are yet to be provided following a freedom of information request.

It should be noted that the Inside Airbnb datasets used for this investigation are accessible to MTA as well. In 2023, laws changed, so the MTA must share all holiday premises data with local councils on request.

Tourism minister Ian Borg promised action in April, saying on an episode of Il-Kazin that the government has “the data from the platforms; the data we don’t have, we will continue to obtain. And whoever is renting [to tourists] without being registered faces fines that reach €23,000 — meaning we are not going to be joking about this.”

In August, Swieqi residents reached out to Booking.com and Airbnb to complain about suspicious listings and the negative impact of short-lets. Soon after, Swieqi’s Deputy Mayor wrote on Facebook that “Several listings from around six apartments have already been blocked, particularly those with just one or two registered guests, pending further investigation.”

Booking.com told Amphora Media that it has “a solid process in place for authorities to report any concerns, taking swift action to remove properties if they are found not to be operating in compliance with local laws.”

The Malta Tourism Authority and Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment. 

Amphora Media also contacted 12 major short lets operators to ask how they manage licensing for their listings. None of them replied.

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

• Listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually. 
• Nearly one-third of Malta’s estimated €47 million annual Airbnb revenue is collected by just 63 hosts. 
• The top three operators alone collect around €3.7 million each year.
• Malta’s short-let sector is dominated by property management firms and developers managing hundreds of listings.
• Leading operators include 360 Group (650+ listings, generating €1.7m revenue), Buena Vista Holidays (300+ listings, €950k revenue), and ShortletsMalta Ltd (79 listings, €520k+ revenue).
• Companies like Zzzing and GetawaysMalta manage dozens of short-lets in concentrated areas.

When most people think of short-term rentals, often called “Airbnbs” after the company that popularised the model, they imagine a friend or relative renting out a spare room or apartment for extra cash. In reality, the industry is dominated by property managers who control hundreds of listings. Their portfolios generate hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, in revenue each year.

Amphora Media’s latest investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fueling growing tensions within residential communities.

Airbnb claims that the “vast majority of Hosts are regular people” and around “three quarters of EU Hosts share only one listing”.  According to Airbnb data, listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually. 

Nearly a third of the  €47 million generated goes to just 63 hosts; 23 of whom each earn more than €200,000 a year. Hosts are the public-facing entities (individuals or businesses) that communicate with customers.

The top 3 earn an estimated €3.7 million in annual revenue. Inside Airbnb does not have information on listing ownership. The revenues collected from Airbnb are shared between the owners and property managers.

This only scratches the surface. Similar data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not currently accessible. A quick search on their website shows there are at least 3,745 listings in Malta under the “entire homes & apartments”, “holiday homes”, or “villas” banner.

“Matthew ThreeSixty Estates” and its six other profiles top the list of “Airbnb Hosts”, with more than 650 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of over €1.7 million. The profiles are tied to 360 Group LTD, a Malta-registered company owned by Matthew Zammit, whose most recently published accounts date back to 2020.

360 Group operates across several areas of the short-term rental market. According to the 360 website, services include property management, where owners hand over day-to-day responsibilities in exchange for a fee; subletting, which guarantees owners a fixed monthly payment under a long-term contract while the company uses the property for short-term lets; and a development arm. “Earn more. Stress less” is the company’s pitch to owners.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, another property management company offering services similar to 360 Group, which is owned by Aaron and Paula Xuereb, ranks second with over 300 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of nearly €950,000.

It operates on Airbnb under two profiles. ‘Buena Vista Holidays Malta’, which is registered under Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, and ‘Paola’, registered under ‘Paula Xuereb Management Services’, which provides no company number and cannot be found on Malta Business Registry.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

The third-highest estimated earner is ShortletsMalta Ltd, owned by Franco Grech and Ralph Vella. 

The firm, which brands itself as “one of Malta’s foremost developers of luxury residential apartments, homes and properties,” has moved into the short-term rental market. With 79 listings on Airbnb, it is estimated to generate more than €520,000 annually from this portfolio.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

‘Gwennoline’ and ‘Ryan’, who appear on behalf of Gobnb Ltd, a Maltese company owned by Ryan Seguna, Fabiano Bugelli and Roderick Bartolo, have the third most listings on Airbnb. Together, they manage 117 listings with an estimated annual portfolio revenue of more than €468,000.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Zzzing, another property management outfit, has 115 listings and their portfolio is estimated to generate over €260,600 a year. Zzzing promises its clients to take care of licensing.

Run by VH Company Ltd, owned by Edward Cauchi, Bikram Arora and Jonathan Sammut, Amphora Media’s analysis of the data shows that Zzzing operates several Airbnb clusters: multiple short-let accommodations in a single location, sometimes covering multiple apartments in a residential block. It tops the list in this category.

Amphora Media’s analysis, which mapped listings by geolocation, found that Zzzing ran 36 listings across 10 different clusters. Zzzing also has a significant presence on other platforms such as Booking.com, where it manages 116 properties. 

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

GetawaysMalta, a host listed under an individual operator, Neville Galea, also operates significant clusters.According to the data, GetawaysMalta and GetawaysMalta Neville operate 87 listings across two profiles, generating an estimated revenue of €204,000 per year. Analysis shows that 32 of Getaways’ listings are spread across 8 locations. 

To comply with EU law, Airbnb requires hosts to declare themselves as an individual or a company. Individual profiles should only be created for hosts whose primary activity is not short-term lets.

As a host, Galea (a.k.a. GetawaysMalta Neville) and GetawaysMalta are registered as individuals despite Airbnb’s listed criteria stating that anyone whose main activity is short-lets, including solo traders, should register as a business. Galea’s listings come with a warning for guests, “Consumer protection laws don’t apply to reservations hosted by individuals”. 

AirBnB did not reply to our questions about commercial hosts registering as individuals.

GetawaysMalta’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Some cases highlight serious gaps in Airbnb’s regulatory oversight. 

One host, ‘Fabian,’ claims his properties are managed by SF Properties, but lists an invalid company number and cannot be traced on the Malta Business Registry despite identifying as a company in Malta. His 112 listings are estimated to generate around €110,000 annually. 

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not yet accessible through similar scraping.

However, upcoming EU legislation will require the platform to share such information with governments, a crucial step, given that our investigation found that 19% of short-term rental accommodations on the islands of Malta operate without a license from the Malta Tourism Authority.

Speaking to Amphora Media, tourism researcher Marie Avellino explained:

“If you’re running a business … or you are commercially managing lots of apartments… whoever is managing it has to address how they are going to cater for the collection of garbage – like you manage how the sheets are going to be washed, how the apartment is going to be cleaned. They charge very good money for managing. (…) So this has to be integrated into the contract””.

Short-let managers “need to realise what harm is happening”, and when it does, customers will not return, she says.

“If people come to the island and they think it’s dirty, full of rubbish and so on, they won’t come. [Managers] might not realise it, or they’re just thinking about what money they’re going to get now.”

MEP Kim van Sparrentak (member of the Dutch Greens) led the development of the new EU law on mandatory data sharing between platforms and local authorities. Commenting on the Amphora Media investigation into enforcement gaps, she said, “The European rules that oblige Airbnb and other platforms to share data can help local and national authorities to enforce the rules can be a real game changer once these enter into force next year. Everything however starts with the political will to combat over-tourism and ensure that housing is for people, nor for profit.”

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

Environment Minister Miriam Dalli made the bold claim at an informal meeting of EU Environment Ministers in Aalborg this July, while discussing new EU measures and targets to curb pollution, policies that could prove both costly and unpopular at home.

Yet Malta’s energy policy has come under criticism from EU institutions. Council has urged the government to “wind down the emergency energy support measures”, which is estimated to be worth around 1% of Malta’s GDP on subsidising climate-harming fuels. In a meeting with social partners, Prime Minister Robert Abela promised to retain these subsidies in the 2026 budget.

According to the Commission, Malta maintains sizeable fossil-fuel subsidies without a planned phase-out before 2030. Many of these subsidies neither protect vulnerable households nor safeguard energy security, and hinder the shift to cleaner transport and industry.

Both narratives overlook one crucial factor: Malta’s environmental footprint extends beyond its coastline. Our impact extends outward through ships and planes, our waste and electricity, and all that we consume to keep the island running.

Against this backdrop, Dalli’s claim raises a key question: is Malta really such a small polluter?

Speaking in Aalborg, Minister Dalli said:

“To achieve [Climate neutrality by 2050] we need to have specific targets, but we want those targets to be fair, ensuring they follow the most cost-effective path. We want the national circumstances of different countries to be taken into consideration, particularly in our case, since we [Malta] are among the countries that pollute the least.”

“We need to make sure that what we are agreeing upon is being implemented and is realistic for countries, particularly for small countries like Malta, where our position is to keep insisting that Malta is the country with the lowest per capita pollution in the European Union. We are making every possible effort, but we do not want to place a burden on the people.” 

In 2023, more than a third of people (35%) in Malta reported exposure to pollution, grime, and other environmental problems. This is the highest share in the EU and nearly three times the EU average of 12%. High-earning households were even more affected than low-earning ones. However, the share was 40% in 2013.

When we look at domestic net greenhouse gas emissions per capita, Malta’s are indeed third-lowest, as of 2023. But this calculation has an important caveat: “emissions from international aviation and maritime transport are excluded”.

Counting emissions strictly within national boundaries fails to capture the total pollution generated by a country’s economy.

Many other EU economies emit greenhouse gases to produce the goods and services people need, such as food or household items.

Malta has the lowest share of agricultural production in its economy (alongside Luxembourg), the third-lowest share of manufacturing, and even the third-lowest share of construction.  That means, for all the added value generated in the Maltese consumer economy, the contribution of productive industries is minimal.

To account for this, the EU also calculates greenhouse gas footprint. Here, as of 2022 Malta ranks in the middle third of EU countries emissions per capita linked to consumption.

Malta’s invisible emissions: The sea and air

That’s not everything. Footprint calculations follow “the concepts and definitions of national accounts.” These accounts do not include international aviation and navigation (shipping). According to UN standards, these are reported separately and are not subject to the limitation and reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol . This has left governments with fewer incentives to reduce emissions in these sectors.

Malta’s tourism boom has seen an increase in aircraft travelling in and out of Malta.

The Malta International Airport reported nearly 59,000 aircraft movements in 2024, up from around 51,000 in 2023 and some 40,000 in 2022. The amount of cargo flown in also increased, with planes transporting almost 24,000 tonnes of cargo in 2024. As of April Malta’s aircraft registry has 929 planes and other aircraft types.

Meanwhile, Malta’s maritime registry grew by almost 10% in 2024, strengthening Malta’s position as the largest maritime registry in Europe and the sixth largest in the world.

Ships can register in any country, without having links to it. Shipping companies, which already enjoy VAT advantages, can register in low-tax jurisdictions and compete with more environmentally friendly means of transportation.

According to NSO’s latest data, there were 8,644 vessels under the Maltese flag as of 2022, with 797 new vessels added. Three-quarters of these new additions were pleasure yachts.

The government has announced that in the first quarter of 2025, the registry surpassed 10,000, and Malta has the largest registry of superyachts in the world. 

According to Eurostat (2023 data), with nearly 46,000 ships, Malta ranked 9th in the EU in terms of vessel arrivals. Meanwhile, data from Transport Malta shows that 779 vessels arrived in Malta with wheeled cargo, such as vehicles. Additionally, 470 ships transported crude oil, and 420 vessels carried cruise passengers.

In 2023, the European Federation for Transport and Environment, an advocacy group, published a study on the cruise industry and stated that “The sector still relies almost entirely on fossil fuels of the dirtiest kind, full of toxic substances including sulphur.”

In 2021, researchers at Indiana University estimated that a superyacht with a permanent crew, helicopter pad, submarines and pools is “by far the worst asset to own from an environmental standpoint”.

Oxfam’s 2024 analysis found that “an ultra-rich European on their yachts emits, on average, as much carbon as an ordinary European would in 585 years”. It shows that 22% of superyachts’ overall emissions are generated while moored, which means that Malta-flagged superyachts moored elsewhere would pollute another country while enjoying exemptions from EU carbon pricing.

A 2023 strategy document by the Transport Ministry aimed to “make Malta a jurisdiction of choice for the superyacht industry”, adding that “diligence must be exercised to ensure that coastal infrastructure and other activities associated with yachting do not cause pollution or deterioration of the coastal environment.” Words like ‘emissions’, ‘carbon’ and ‘greenhouse’ are never mentioned.

The EU has taken steps to account for the pollution from planes and ships within the bloc. Companies flying to and from the EU must obtain emissions allowances. Since last year, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has been extended to maritime transport (shipping) emissions. For now, 12 companies are assigned to report to Malta.

These changes mean that counting and reducing emissions is gradually becoming mandatory for ships and planes, through international frameworks that require reporting and impose reduction obligations— though these systems do not yet set absolute caps on total emissions. The rules on shipping are new and will be phased in gradually, so we will need to wait for statistics.

Malta’s waste overseas: Over 130,000 tonnes sent abroad for recycling

Waste is another item that Malta partly offloads to other countries. Its reliance on exporting waste for recycling (see our earlier reporting) makes it challenging to calculate what share of exported waste is actually recycled and what ends up burnt or landfilled abroad, generating emissions without satisfying consumer demand the way real recycling does.

According to 2023 NSO data, Malta sent around 130,000 tonnes of waste abroad for recycling and nearly 12,000 tonnes for energy recovery. 

Plugged In Abroad:  A third of Malta’s electricity is imported

Energy supply figures show that Malta’s dependence on energy imports increased between 2023 and 2024.

Last year, nearly a third of Enemalta’s supply came from the Malta-Sicily interconnector (less than a quarter in 2023).

About two-thirds of this import was generated by natural gas – a fossil fuel – and only 8% by renewables.

In absolute terms, the increase in electricity imports appears even more striking, rising from 648.36 GWh in 2023 to 970.42 GWh in 2024. Italy itself is a net importer – it imports energy for its own needs.

Through the interconnector, Malta can also export energy, but these exports dwindled between 2022 and 2024.

Minister Dalli refers to a “burden” in her comments after EU recommendations to stop subsidising fossil fuels.

In July, ARMS Ltd, an entity under Dalli’s ministry, circulated individual letters to households, saying, “The government is fulfilling its commitment to support families amidst the increase in international oil and energy prices, which support is resulting in continuous savings for you.”

According to the European Environment Agency, fossil fuel subsidies in 2023 in Malta represented the highest share of gross domestic product (GDP) among EU countries. Energy subsidies were the third-largest item in the Programmes and Initiatives category of the state budget, in the first half of 2025, after social security benefits and church schools.

A recommendation drafted by the European Commission was scathing: “In Malta, fossil-fuel subsidies – such as the ongoing support to Enemalta, subsidies for petroleum producers, and a reduction of excise duties on petrol and diesel – are economically inefficient and act as disincentives to the uptake of renewables and the decarbonisation of economic activities. Moreover, they represent a budgetary burden on Malta’s public finances.”

When considering domestic net greenhouse gas emissions per capita alone, Malta is indeed among the lowest polluters. However, it refuses to recognise the full picture.

In the context of climate change, it is relevant to consider the total demand generated by each country’s consumer economy, not only emissions within its national boundaries. 

When a country’s economy benefits from sectors not accounted for in the national emissions accounts, such as shipping, consumer products, and other services like electricity, it is essential to account for their emissions when examining the environmental impact of Malta’s economic activity. 

Given Malta’s consumption emissions place closer to the EU average, its wide shipping industry, growing air travel, and increasing external electricity production, Minister Dalli’s statement that Malta is among the least polluting countries in the EU is misleading, especially when considering that one in three people in Malta have reported exposure to pollution, the highest in the EU.

This is especially true in the context of measures to rein in climate change, which include phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.

The EU’s Biodiversity Strategy contains a target of protecting 30% of the EU’s seas. Officials say that Malta is currently protecting about a third of its waters. International sources show much lower numbers, under 10%.

What’s behind the discrepancy?

In a recent statement at an international event, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli said that “Malta protects more than 30% of its maritime zone, through Natura 2000 sites, scientific monitoring, and a €2 million conservation programme.” 

The Environment & Resources Authority (ERA) also made claims in 2021 that it “designated over 35% of Malta’s waters as Marine Protected Areas.” Ambjent Malta, a government department, also cites the same figure.

In June, Alicia Bugeja Said, Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Animal Rights, referenced the over 30% figure of the Fisheries Management Zone as protected areas in a speech.

Meanwhile, the EU’s Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE) states that only 5.5% of Malta’s marine waters are covered by protected areas.

The same figure appears on a dashboard managed by the EU’s Joint Research Centre. The UN Environment Programme’s Protected Planet website uses yet another figure: 7.83%. The same figure is used by the Marine Conservation Institute.

This major discrepancy can make it confusing to understand whether Malta is on track with its marine protection targets.

Although the government and international sources roughly agree on the size of Malta’s protected areas, they divide this figure by different reference areas. In mathematical terms, they use different denominators. The smaller the denominator (the territory by which the protected area’s size is divided), the larger the result of the division will be.

How does Malta protect its sea?

Marine territory can be protected under the Natura 2000 and/or national frameworks. The BISE website shows that the two largely overlap.

The designated territories aim to protect specific habitats and species. Natura 2000 sites are not nature reserves – human activities like fishing or tourism are allowed, as long as protected species remain in good condition.

Protection coverage of what, exactly?

In her recent statement, Minister Dalli quoted an audit that said that more than 30% of Malta’s ‘maritime zone’ is protected.

Both Ambjent Malta and ERA use the Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ) as the denominator.

The EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive defines a country’s marine waters as coastal waters and “waters, the seabed and subsoil on the seaward side of the baseline from which the extent of territorial waters is measured extending to the outmost reach of the area where a Member State has and/or exercises jurisdictional rights, in accordance with the Unclos [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]”.

This UN convention provides the following definitions:

• Territorial sea – up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, making it the smallest unit;
• Contiguous zone – up to 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured;
• Exclusive economic zone, adjacent to the territorial sea – up to 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

The convention further defines that in the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has jurisdiction with regard to the protection and preservation of the marine environment.

Malta’s environmental jurisdiction in this zone is confirmed by the Exclusive Economic Zone Act. The UN’s Protected Planet website, the Marine Conservation Institute and the Marine Regions website consider that Malta’s exclusive economic zone is just under 53,000 km², but EU websites state it is over 75,000km².  

ERA’s spokesperson questions the use of exclusive economic zone for these calculations. “The [EU-wide] assessments citing 5.5% follow a much broader definition of “marine waters”, which makes the extensive Maltese MPA [marine protected areas] network look far smaller in percentage terms,” the spokesperson explained in response to Amphora’s questions.

In a research paper, the University of Malta’s marine geologist Aaron Micallef has called Malta’s large continental shelf, which is the size of the exclusive economic zone, “Malta’s largest single natural resource”.

However, when it comes to calculating the extent of protection, he shares ERA’s view. “For the purpose of evaluating national protection targets under strategies like the EU Biodiversity Strategy or the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the FMZ-based denominator is likely more appropriate, because it reflects Malta’s actual capacity and legal mandate to implement conservation measures,” he said.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is a UN framework. It sets a target to “Conserve 30% of Land, Waters and Seas”. Here, countries submit their own targets, and Malta’s target reflects the language of Malta’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to 2030:

“By 2030, 30% of Maltese land and 30% of the Maltese Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ) are legally protected and form part of the comprehensive and ecologically representative National Ecological Network.”

In comparison, Croatia sets the target as “By 2030, protect 30% of marine areas under national jurisdiction.” The Spanish target mentions alignment with EU strategies and aims to protect 30% of the country’s marine surface. Italy speaks of “marine area under Italian jurisdiction” and France speaks of “maritime areas”.

Ireland, which also has a large marine area, has the lowest protection coverage in the EU, and Malta is third-worst performer.

What is the protected area?

Government sources state that the area of the “FMZ is approximately 11,480 km²”. Malta has managed this extended fisheries zone, measured at 25 nautical miles outwards, since 1971. This is larger than the contiguous zone, but much smaller than the exclusive economic zone.

Legislation allows the government to designate an exclusive economic zone that coincides with the continental shelf, which is of similar size to the area used by the EU.

An EU dashboard, which also uses the 5.5% protected area coverage figure, specifies that the figures are provided to the European Environmental Agency by member states. This suggests Malta must and does submit the larger reference figure when reporting progress towards the EU’s 30% target.

Why is the Fisheries Management Zone area used locally?

One clue comes from a 2024 strategy document, which states that “Most of the laws of Malta currently only apply up to the territorial waters and therefore it is necessary to extend the applicability of certain laws to exclusive economic zone areas or environment protection areas”.

“The 35% figure is misleading if it’s meant to represent Malta’s total marine jurisdiction. The fisheries management zone is only a part of Malta’s seas,” says Jacob Armstrong, ocean policy manager at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature’s European Policy Office. 

A spokesperson of the European Environmental Agency confirmed to Amphora Media that the area reported by Malta to the European Commission under various legal frameworks aimed at protecting Europe’s seas is indeed 75,715 km² – the largest of the figures used, which is up to “200 NM [nautical miles] from the coast,” the spokesperson explained, which confirms that Malta uses this figure for EU frameworks.

Data shows that some protected areas are criss-crossed by intensive vessel traffic, and environmental stress is likely despite protection. Protected habitats experience pressures from fishing, pollution and water sports activities. This is allowed in Natura 2000 sites, but must be monitored and managed.

Where Malta is free to choose the denominator, the extent of its marine protection coverage is correct. Malta uses FMZ coverage nationally and internationally, where it can formulate its own targets. However, this is somewhat arbitrary.

But for international accountability purposes,  Malta’s “over 30% protected seas” claim is misleading.

By international standards, the figure is under 10%, and we did not find another European Mediterranean country calculating its protection coverage with a fisheries management zone or contiguous zone (similar size) as a denominator.

The FMZ is slightly larger than the contiguous zone and much smaller than the exclusive economic zone. It is a large area in comparison to Malta’s land mass, but it is not the area to consider when tracking Malta’s progress towards EU targets.

Since this portion of the Mediterranean Sea is assigned to Malta, no other country will step in to ensure protection. If Malta does not step up, it will leave gaps in Mediterranean protection coverage.

Flaunting the “more than 30%” figure, when the EU target is 30%, makes it look like Malta has already exceeded its EU commitment. However, according to international standards for calculating protected area coverage, Malta is far from fulfilling its commitment.

In this context specifically, the use of this figure to claim that Malta protects a large part of its seas is misleading.

This project is supported by the European Media and Information Fund. The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the authors and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.