The government has launched an eight-week consultation process on the reorganisation of open markets.

Speaking at a press conference this morning, Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said the government wanted to transfer the day-to-day administration of the markets to local councils.

It also wanted to see greater product diversity in the markets - including food specialities and handicrafts.

The location, size and appearance of the stalls also needed to be improved.

There are 14 open markets in Malta and Gozo with 1,670 stall places.

Dr Azzopardi said the government saw a need to review the licensing process, particularly as licences were currently issued for vehicles, not the actual hawkers. The hawkers needed to be insured.

While the consultation process is in place, the processing of applications for new stall licences has been suspended.

Dr Azzopardi said the markets should be such as not to cause inconvenience to neighbours, standards of hygiene needed to be high, especially with regard to the sale of food, and access had to be open to emergency vehicles.

For the future, he said, stall places in the open markets may be awarded by tender instead of ballot. The local councils will be responsible for the cleanliness of the market sites, and they will be able to charge a fee for this service.

Dr Azzopardi said the Sunday market at Floriana - transferred recently from St James Ditch in Valletta, is doing well.

The White Paper is available online on the website of the Ministry of Finance at http://finance.gov.mt/

Meanwhile, the GWU said it had been approached by a number of open market stall owners and would be helping them during this consultation and reform process.