Missing deadline 'will not' trigger EU fines

Missing the May 1 deadline for closing the Maghtab landfill will not automatically trigger infringement procedures against Malta, according to the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment.

The Maltese government has committed itself to closing the Maghtab landfill by the end of April.

"When a member state fails to comply with a directive, the Commission issues two letters of warning. The Commission will then take the country to the Court of Justice, if need be," a spokesman for the directorate general said.

Court proceedings take one-and-a-half to two years before a ruling is issued. The process then starts all over again and member states are only fined once the Court of Justice issues a second ruling.

Reiterating that it is the Maltese government's prerogative to come up with the best solution to dispose of waste, the Environment DG said the Commission's interest was to see the best environment conditions all across the European Union and it only issued fines as a last resort.

"At this point, though, it is completely exaggerated to talk of fines if the May 1 deadline is missed by a few months," the spokesman said.

The government is planning to open temporary engineered landfills close to the Mnajdra and Hagar Qim temples until a site at ta' l-Ghallis is ready to replace Maghtab.

Heritage organisation Din l-Art Helwa has asked the minister to keep Maghtab open for a short while longer and to dump non-inert waste in it.

"This is the lesser of the two evils. The May 1 deadline is, we understand, not an EU stipulation but a self-imposed one," DLH told Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit.

DLH president Martin Scicluna suggested that the government should immediately start work at ta' l-Ghallis, the site designated for the long-term engineered landfill, and to change its plans for the disused quarries in Qrendi, saying that developing landfills close to world heritage sites would have irreversible consequences.

"That's exactly what I have been saying since September," Nationalist backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said when contacted.

"It would be a great mistake for the government to go on with its plans stubbornly. The first phase of ta' l-Ghallis would be ready and operative had work started when this issue was brought up last year. Keeping Maghtab open for a while and starting work at ta' l-Ghallis would be the most sensible thing to do," Dr Pullicino Orlando said.

"The EU will not fine Malta just for that. I am sure that reason will prevail in the end and the government will listen," he added.