Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

1028 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE (d) to assist and cooperate with other member states in line with the EU Directive; (e) to recommend to the Authority as to whether a license shall be issued or not for newapplications of travel agents, after assessing the new licensee; (f ) to recommend to the Authority whether a travel agent’s license shall be renewed or revoked, or whether other action would be appropriate, such as the suspension of the license; (g) to liaise with the enforcement directorate of the Authority, should the need arise, in case a travel agent would be in breach of the Insolvency Fund Regulations; and (h) annually, to publish the contributions made by all the contributors. Regulation 7 further stipulates that the “ Board shall draw its own terms of reference ” 10 , and these would be approved by the Authority and endorsed by the Minister for Tourism. Indeed, it must be emphasised that according to the law, these terms of reference “ shall be published on the Authority’s website ” and the Board shall review these to be “ legally binding on the Managing Board, the Authority, the Contributors and any potential beneficiary .” (Number 1). In line with the Board`s functions, it could liaise with the enforcement divisionof theMaltaTourismAuthority, and furthermore, investigate any report or suspicious trading. To date, all travel agents have contributed € 10,000 into the fund. It is the Board that is empowered to evaluate licence applications. All travel agents are bound to submit a certified audited balance sheet of the profit and loss account within ten months of the end of their most recent financial year. With regard a new licence, the contribution of € 10,000 must be deposited with the licence application as a pre-requisite for the application to be considered. Should the licence be rejected, the contribution, would be immediately reimbursed. The terms of reference moreover stipulate that should a travel agent relinquish his licence, the bond (including any top ups) would be returned within 30 days from when the Managing Board is satisfied that there is no further exposure to potential claims on the fund related to that specific agent, subject to whether there are readily available funds. Should there be no funds available, the bond will be reimbursed once the fund has the money. 10 https://www.mta.com.mt/en/file.aspx?f=31225 as accessed 28 June 2019.