Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Brussels raps Malta over lack of air quality plan
The European Commission yesterday warned it would take legal action if Malta continued to drag its feet in drawing up an air quality plan and complying with the EU's strict directives.
However, the EU Executive does not appear keen to be drawn into the controversy over the presence of black dust in the south of the island and avoided replying to a call by Labour MEP Louis Grech to investigate the matter.
In a parliamentary question, Labour's head of delegation in Brussels called on the Commission to investigate the black dust issue.
In reply, the new Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, noted that the quality of air in Malta's inner harbour region, including Valletta, was not in line with the emission values set by the EU. The air in non-urbanised areas seemed to be much better and in line, he added.
However, Brussels was still waiting for Malta to provide it with more up-to-date information, particularly for 2008, and also for the island to implement an air quality plan. The Commission warned it would start infringement procedures if no progress was made in the coming weeks.
"In view of the fact that the annual air quality report (2008) should have been submitted by September 30, 2009 the Maltese authorities have been contacted and reminded of their obligation to provide this data without further delay. If necessary, the Commission will take appropriate enforcement action to ensure that this data is submitted," Mr Potocnik said.
The Commission had already started infringement procedures against the island over excessive levels of particles in the air, known as PM10.
According to Mr Potocnik, the Maltese authorities had indicated that a notification under article 22 of the new Air Quality Directive would be submitted by end October 2009 together with the adopted air quality plan.
But the Commission had not received any notification from Malta to date, he pointed out.
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Joe Fenech
Feb 28th 2010, 20:04
As usual...negative statistics!
Edward Camilleri
Feb 26th 2010, 21:13
This is what we should be doing, cleaning our mess, and not as the Tuna article suggest that Malta wants to continue fishing tuna despite the objections by the majority of EU countries.
E. Azzopardi
Feb 26th 2010, 19:50
First we asked for a derogation until last month. In fact we had to comply with the EU directives as regards emissions by January 2010. But we did not make it and we have now asked the EU to extend the degoration until June 2011. In other words, the government is telling us that we are going to keep on inhaling all these dangerous fumes for another 18 months, Gratis.. Perhaps we won't make it either by then!!! Disgraceful and unacceptable.
What is keeping us from stopping all the fumes from private cars, mini buses, trucks etc IMMEDIATELY . Let us not include buses because we are " reforming " the transport. But even here Malta will still permit Euro 3 emissions which the EU does not suggest. EU is suggesting Euro 4 and 5 compliance.
john fenech
Feb 26th 2010, 16:21
Typical, the EU proves that it is bureaucratic and yet completely inept to implement its regulation across the board. Further more the government incompetence or irresponsibility to safeguard our quality of life is evident once again. It seems that the Air Quality plan is still somewhere in between Castille, MRAE and MEPA, I am not sure if MRA is also in the picture! Maybe being polluted to our eyeballs is only a misconception!
On the other hand what does the commissioner expect? That we move 24*7 to the green zones-what is left of them- because the quality of air seems to be much better? Note nothing is quantified about the quality of the air -the emphasis is >seems to be!
The inner harbour area is not in line with the emission values. But what does the EU expect, without any ambient controls especially in this area, which have the heaviest traffic flow per Kilometre, densely populated (60000 inhabitants) sport the most efficient power station plus several other industrial concerns and commercial outlets, which I am sure subscribe to ISO14000 standards! Whoever lives in this area should be given a health hazard bonus!
Lorane Withfield
Feb 26th 2010, 13:52
The picture above looks very mild comparing it with some streets and main roads in Gozo. Anyone suffering with asthma my advice is to go to a cleaner country as this island is deadly for such people, we see some amny lotties reving uyp as if the do it on purpose when they see us foreigners./
Malcolm Fenech
Feb 26th 2010, 11:33
How many times have we been stuck in traffic behind a vehicle belching out black fumes as the one in the picture? Is it so difficult to check which VRT garages pass these vehicles?
And nice photo by the way, looks like a 3rd world country (please no 'this is a third world country!!!' or 'only in malta!!!' comments - both are untrue and not funny). Also how long before property owners are responsible for the facade of their buildings?