Call for bottle shops enforcement

It is “unacceptable” to suspend the enforcement of a legal notice just a few weeks after it was published following years of discussion, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association says.

The law, which is being reconsidered, prohibits the sale of alcohol from confectionaries after 9 p.m. and is intended to stop street-drinking in tourist areas.

“The government has said it is fine-tuning the law but we do not know how,” MHRA president George Micallef said. “We certainly cannot go back to the situation we were in before the legal notice was published where bottle shops had a free reign.”

He said the MHRA should be consulted if the legal notice was going to change but common sense should prevail.

The regulations, published in March, give confectionaries until Wednesday to choose whether they want to stop selling alcohol after 9 p.m. and continue to enjoy unrestricted opening hours or else sell alcohol but close at 9 p.m.

So far, shops licensed as confectioneries could not sell alcohol at any time of the day or night but this was being abused. Not only was alcohol being sold but shops licensed as confectionaries were selling it at all hours due to their unrestricted opening hours.

Trade Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said the regulations were a move to curb abuse. He said they were drawn up after two years of consultation with the different stakeholders, including the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, the MHRA, Sedqa – the government drug and alcohol abuse agency, the police and the Malta Tourism Authority.

He said a meeting would be held in the coming days with the GRTU and the General Workers’ Union, which represent confectionaries, to “iron out” certain issues.

Although he did not say what the pending issues were, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia said the talks were meant to “find a solution for confectionaries in tourist areas”.

He said the majority of confectionaries surveyed, especially those in areas where there was not much business after a certain time, indicated they were willing to refrain from selling alcohol after 9 p.m.

The meeting with the government is expected to address those in specific areas, especially in tourism zones such as St Julians and Buġibba.

“We have a meeting to find a solution and remove the blanket ban imposed by this legal notice and, instead, empower the councils of the specific localities to do the enforcement,” he said.

The GRTU is defending the interests of what are known as bottle shops in specific areas such as St Julians and Buġibba that are licensed to operate as confectioneries but sell alcohol. These serve like bees to honey, luring youngsters seeking to buy alcohol at a cheaper rate than neighbouring bars. This practice led the St Julians council to make it illegal to drink alcohol in glass containers in designated streets.

Asked about the GRTU’s complaints, Dr Azzopardi said he was surprised at its stand because the president of its tourism and hospitality section, Philip Fenech, had praised the regulations when they were first issued in March.

Reacting to this, Mr Farrugia said Mr Fenech had not known the government would impose a blanket ban on all confectioneries.