04th June 2004

Friends of the Earth calls for a sign to prove environmental commitment

While Friends of the Earth (Malta) welcomes the recent statements on the environment being made by the Nationalist Party in government and the Malta Labour Party, it calls on voters to think about the poor environmental records of both those parties when voting in the European Parliamentary elections on 12 June.

If past performance is a reflection of what is to be expected in the future then these two parties are not worth voting for. Friends of the Earth (Malta) has been calling for environmental improvements since 1985 and, nearly twenty years later, we face much greater problems than we did then. While environmental awareness has increased, Malta’s air quality and water quality has deteriorated, and Malta faces a variety of environmental problems related to land use, waste, transport, agriculture, energy, the
sea, and biodiversity.

While Malta’s joining the EU should prove to be a major step in the right direction, Friends of the Earth calls on the environment minister to put a stop to land speculation and over-building. Malta has lost far too much countryside and coastal areas to building that was, and is, unnecessary and unsustainable.

As a sign of goodwill the government could start by stating that the proposal for waste landfills near the Mnajdra Temples is withdrawn and that it opposes the loss of large tracts of good agricultural land to golf courses.

Friends of the Earth (Malta) will not take governments commitment to the environment seriously unless targets are set for sustainable water, land, energy use and pollution is reduced.