david darmanin
The president of the Chamber of Commerce Tancred Tabone is already cross with his new partners, the Federation of Industry (FOI), whose vice-president appeared on last Monday’s edition of Bondiplus on TVM after having agreed with Tabone not to.
Both the Chamber and the FOI are planning to merge their two organisations.
Last Monday, presenter Lou Bondì invited the social partners to confront Investments, Transport and Communications minister Austin Gatt, who is responsible for Enemalta, after government tabled a 142-page document proposing a controversial reform on energy tariffs.
The government intends hiking up energy tariffs to make good for a €55 million deficit at Enemalta.
Upon Tabone’s recommendation however, the Chamber and the FOI agreed to decline Bondì’s invitation since “Bondiplus is not the ideal arena” to discuss such an intricate issue.
Occasionally criticised for delaying the communication of their position on key issues to the public, the FOI still sought to immerse itself in the public arena, at the cost of facing its future partner’s criticism.
Contacted for his comments, Tabone said that since the government’s proposals had just been presented to them, he agreed with the FOI to go through it thoroughly and study the implications before presenting a clear position to the public.
“Both of us agreed not to take such a complex issue to an entertainment programme,” Tancred said of Bondiplus, “and to keep discussing it in a proper forum, in this case the MCESD.”
“I hold nothing against the programme as such, but this is a very delicate issue. We are talking about people’s livelihoods here.
“Our would-be merged partners still went ahead, going against what we had agreed. This way it seemed that only the Chamber refused the offer.”
Asked to divulge how the FOI reacted when he contacted them after the programme, Tabone said: “I think they said they had to go because of pressure from their members. But from what I’ve seen, and from what other viewers have told me, not much has been achieved.”
In any case, Tabone assured that this incident would not have any bearing on the future merger.
“We’ve both agreed to merge, but so to speak, we’re still engaged. And no, this does not affect our decision to join. That said, I still think we should be doing things together.”
Asked for his side of the story, FOI President Martin Galea said:
“There was a communication problem. We know that Bondiplus was not the right space for such a serious discussion to take place, so yes, we agree with Tancred.”
So why did they still send vice President Anthony Tabone on their behalf?
“I think a lot of our members were very concerned that if this proposal goes ahead, they will be hit very badly.
“We were not very keen on going either but at the end some of our members were insisting. I was abroad then. There was a communication problem,” he reiterated.

ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt