The European Commission will be stepping up action against Malta for failing to submit its strategy on biodegradable waste, which it was meant to do five years ago.
"We can confirm that the European Commission has decided to step up its action against the Maltese government because we are still waiting for the island's biodegradable waste strategy that had to be submitted to Brussels upon Malta's accession to the EU," a Commission official said yesterday.
"Despite various reminders from our part we have still not received a positive response from Malta and so the Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion, giving the Maltese authorities another two months to send us this strategy.
If this does not happen, the Commission may decide to take the issue before the European Court of Justice," the official said.
According to article 5 of the Landfill Directive, EU member states had to set up a national strategy on how they plan to cut biodegradable waste going to landfills. Malta had to present this strategy by May 2004.
The directive specifies that the strategy should include measures to achieve specific reduction targets through recycling, composting, biogas production or materials/energy recovery.
A government spokesman said that Malta was still drawing up the strategy. "We are still in public consultation over this strategy, however, this should be finalised and approved by the end of this year."
The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs said earlier this month it was trying to reach reduction targets set in the directive by the end of 2010. According to the ministry, with the completion of the renovation of the Sant'Antnin recycling plant in Marsascala, such targets should become achievable.
Malta was given until the end of 2010 to cut by 25 per cent the biodegradable waste it sends to landfills and by 50 per cent by 2013 when compared to its 1995 levels.
According to data supplied by the ministry, just a year away from the EU deadline, Malta is still landfilling 135,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste, almost double the amount of biodegradable municipal waste allowed by next year's EU target.
But according to the government, once ready, the new Sant'Antnin facility will be in a position to process and treat 36,000 tonnes of dry recyclables and 35,000 tonnes of organic waste, drastically slashing the amount of landfilled waste by 71,000 tonnes in a year.
If this happens, Malta will be under the EU's waste threshold established for 2010, which allows a total of 64,000 tonnes of municipal biodegradable waste to be landfilled.