Tourism: Will the departure tax be removed

Departure taxes are not regulated by the EU. It is up to each individual government to decide on departure taxes imposed upon departure of a passenger from that particular country. In Malta we levy a departure and so do other countries.

But EU law does state that you cannot impose a departure tax that discriminates between one destination and another in the EU, although of course, you can discriminate between an EU destination and a non-EU destination.

We have seen this in Britain which, until recently, applied a higher departure tax for British tourists coming to non-EU countries, including Malta, than for British tourists going to other Mediterranean destinations which are in the EU and compete with us, such as Spain or Greece. However, since November 2002 this discrimination has been removed in view of Malta's accession to the EU. It would, in any case, have had to be removed by membership.