The Mini European Assembly debated the EU 2020 targets during a simulation of a plenary session of the European Parliament at Smart City, Kalkara. The programme is organised by the National Student Travel Foundation to provide young people with non-formal training and experiences designed to enhance leadership skills.

The targets, designed to create unity and stability as well as increase performance within the EU, were analysed and a resolution focusing on the EU’s five headline targets, namely employment, research and development, climate and energy, education, social inclusion and poverty reduction, was put forward by the team from De la Salle College representing Germany. The session’s rapporteur team was from the University of Malta and represented Hungary.

Each team representing different EU member states debated whether the targets imposed are achievable and made evident the means through which the state aimed to achieve such targets.

Malta Resources Authority CEO Anthony Rizzo said the targets were not impossible to reach, but courage, creativity and understanding of the long-term good is vital. Taking Malta as a case study, he said the country is well on track to achieve the targets proposed on climate and energy.

Similarly, the session’s chairwoman, Simone Borg, Malta’s Ambassador for Climate Change, said Malta has managed to achieve a lot in relation to climate action with the result that we have a solid base whereby greenhouse gas emissions will continue to be reduced. Prof. Borg also said the generations to come are the stakeholders who will benefit from the cleaner and more sustainable future which the EU targets aim to establish.