9 - 15 December 1999

Drydocks agreement between government and US Navy expected

by Anthony Manduca

The government and the US Navy are expected to come to an agreement in the foreseeable future over repair work being carried out on American auxiliary naval vessels at the Malta Drydocks. Reliable sources told The Malta Business Weekly that the Maltese government was studying the details of a draft agreement reached between the two sides which would enable such work to start after a lapse of many years. Sources said that it was now up to the government to decide whether it wants to allow such American vessels to enter the Malta Drydocks for repair work and it had to relay its answer to the American authorities.

The question of repair work on ships belonging to the American navy has been controversial in Malta because the Maltese Constitution prohibits such work to be carried out on any military vessels belonging to the superpowers. However, with the end of the Cold War many observers have questioned both the relevance and the need for such a constitutional clause, arguing that the world is no longer divided into two blocs and the Soviet Union no longer exits.

Last summer an American technical team visited the Malta Drydocks to inspect the facilities available and the capabilities of the workforce to carry out ship repair work. The Americans soon gave the go-ahead to the Maltese authorities and were said to be impressed by what they saw.

The constitutional clause banning work on naval vessels of the superpowers was introduced in 1987 as part of the package of amendments including one safeguarding majority rule in Malta. The then opposition Nationalist Party felt it had no choice but to agree to the drydocks clause, along with a neutrality and non-alignment clause, in return for having majority rule enshrined in the Constitution. This latter amendment was important because the Nationalists had won the 1981 election with 51 per cent of the popular vote but nonetheless found themselves in opposition due to a flaw in the electoral system.

In 1995, five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the then American Ambassador had offered the Malta Drydocks the possibility of carrying out repair work on American auxiliary naval vessels. At that time, the Malta Drydocks council, which was still an elected body and headed by chairman Sammy Meilaq, refused the offer to repair such vessels on the grounds that this type of work was contrary to Malta's Constitution. However, Mr Meilaq's successor, Prof. Noel Zarb Adami, seems to believe that there is no constitutional problem with accepting such work. Prof. Zarb Adami was recently quoted in the newspaper Il-Mument as saying that he personally believed that the drydocks could accept such work and that he had received mixed legal advice on this matter.

A Malta Drydocks contract with the American navy would be a welcome boost to the 'yard which continues to lose millions of Maltese liri every year despite heavy government subsidies.

The question of defining an "auxiliary naval vessel" could cause some problems. Most American naval vessels are armed whether they are auxiliary ships or not but sometimes the US Navy does not officially declare what type of weapons its ship are carrying.