Malta must lift departure tax or face European Court

Malta will be taken before the European Court of Justice within a few weeks if the government continues to insist on retaining the airport departure tax.

The Commission decided yesterday to reject the arguments made by the Maltese authorities in response to two legal warnings that the tax is discriminatory and so breaches EU law.

The EU executive is now set to move on to the third and last stage of the infringement procedure by lodging a formal complaint with the European court. The government, therefore, has to decide whether to remove the tax or fight the Commission in the Court.

The government halved the tax from the beginning of this month, to Lm10. But this has obviously not satisfied the Commission.

"The airport tax is discriminatory as it is only levied on air passengers beginning an international journey outside Malta," the Commission said.

"The tax, therefore, puts an unfair burden on residents in Malta, and makes it more difficult for them to receive and provide services in other member states."

The Commission is arguing that domestic destinations - the Malta-Gozo route - are exempt from the tax and that there should be no differentiation between domestic and other intra-community flights.

The Commission has been communicating with the government over this matter for almost a year.

The first letter of formal warning was issued last July followed by a reasoned opinion in December.