Drafting of the national environment policy

I am, to say the least, a bit perplexed by the position being adopted by the Labour opposition with regards to the drafting of the national environment policy as outlined by Leo Brincat in his letter titled Environmental Challenges (August 2). I reiterate my belief that the drafting of this policy needs the widest participation of stakeholders if it is to be successful in capturing the issues at stake and identifying the best policy solutions. I reiterate the government’s intention to consult the opposition during the drafting of this policy, assuming the opposition wishes to partake in this consultation process.

It seems however that Labour wants to have a consultation process on the consultation process. In the meantime, reading between the lines of what he wrote, Mr Brincat seems to be expecting that we halt the consultation process we launched last week on the Issues Paper, until the opposition is clear in its mind on how it is to be consulted. My appeal to Mr Brincat is to keep things simple, free from undue political complexities. My door, and that of the team working on this policy document, is open to the opposition, other political parties and movements, stakeholders and the public in general.

I have however given the team working on this policy a deadline to complete the process in 18 months. I intend to stick to this deadline. The Issues Paper we launched for public consultation, which draws heavily on the 2008 Environment Report, puts forward a number of issues that “could” form the basis of the environment policy. I say “could” because we want to have the public’s input before finalising the list of issues to be addressed. I invite the public to forward their views on the e-mail address envpolicy.opm@gov.mt. One can also call on 2291 5033/5027 during office hours.

Once this stage is concluded we will start generating, in a scientific manner, possible solutions to the issues identified. Then, in the third and final stage of the process, we will identify the best policy responses. We will have consultations during all of these stages. The opposition is invited to participate in each stage of consultation.