Malta and Italy have informally agreed to impose a moratorium on oil exploration activities in a vast offshore area southeast of Sicily and Malta, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
Italian Ambassador Giovanni de Vito confirmed the existence of this informal agreement but denied the arrangement was linked to Italy’s policy of taking in all the migrants saved in the Mediterranean, which includes Malta’s search and rescue area.
A few weeks ago the Italian media reported there was an unofficial deal between Italy and Malta to exchange migrants for oil exploration rights.
The Maltese government immediately denied any such deal, but rumours were fuelled by a comment by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela during a press conference – who seemed to confirm the presence of an agreement – before he retracted the remark in a subsequent statement.
Speaking to The Sunday Times of Malta, Mrr De Vito insisted that there is absolutely no link between oil and migration in a “new understanding” between the two neighbouring countries. “What’s different now is that there is a change in policy by the Italian government to have in place confidence-building measures on migration with the Maltese government and even with the EU.”
However, he denied that these confidence-building measures entailed Malta giving up some of its claims to oil exploration, particularly on the continental shelf.
Asked why since the election of the new Italian government in 2013 and various meetings between prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Joseph Muscat, irregular migrants were being taken to Italy, the ambassador said this was a result of “a new collaboration at political and operational level between the two countries”.
“We are not doing any favours to Malta even though our new collaboration is very much appreciated by the Maltese government. This is just the result of a clear shift in policy as Italy decided that it wants to show leadership in the migration area, not only towards Malta but towards the EU.”
The ambassador said that on the issue of oil and the continental shelf, discussions were still ongoing, although meetings had been on hold for more than a year.
At the end of 2012, the Italian government enacted a law, unilaterally doubling the area of its continental shelf stretching from the southeast of Sicily towards Libya.
This decision significantly affected Malta’s maritime territory as it stepped onto large areas of the island’s continental shelf and particularly on two blocks close to Libya with the highest potential for oil and gas reserves.
Malta had formally protested on the issue and both governments started technical discussions aimed at finding a solution including the possibility of joint oil exploration in the disputed areas.
These discussions continued despite the change in government in both Italy and Malta.
At a press conference at Castille in November 2013, both Dr Muscat and his then Italian counterpart Enrico Letta announced that discussions on joint oil exploitation in the disputed areas were close to being concluded and a formal agreement had to be signed by the end of that year. Since then, no more announcements have been made.
The Italian ambassador said these discussions were still ongoing although no date had been fixed for the next meeting.
The only agreement to date states that neither Italy nor Malta will award any licences for exploration in disputed areas until a final agreement is reached on joint exploration.
According to the Italian government, the last meeting was held in 2014.