The European Parliament’s Petitions Committee has called on the European Commission to come up with a “proper response” to a petition by 1,200 Maltese citizens on dust emissions from the construction industry.

The Committee will seek more information from the Maltese authorities but yesterday also instructed the Commission to explain its position in the coming weeks.

The move followed a passionate appeal to the European Commission by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil against its decision to close infringement procedures against the island on EU air-quality rules.

Addressing the Committee after a presentation by Ronald Formosa – one of the petitioners – which included dozens of pictures exposing examples of excessive dust from the Maltese construction industry in the past weeks, Dr Busuttil slammed the Commission decision, just a year after it had accused the island of having excessive levels of dust particles, known as PM10.

The Commission decided to close the case a few weeks ago after it accepted data supplied by the Maltese authorities showing the high level of emissions in 2008 was due to natural causes, specifically sand from the Sahara desert and sea spray.Dr Busuttil said the Commission’s attitude on the issue was very disappointing and claimed “the dust problem in Malta is a reality and cannot be justified just because Malta found the way to go around the rules”.

“I am not satisfied at all with the Commission’s response and I am not confident on this reply if the Commission is basing its conclusions on information coming from Malta,” he told the Commission official present for the meeting.

“We need to treat people better and not insult their intelligence. In Malta there is still no legislation regulating the construction industry on their emission levels and nothing has changed since the Commission opened its infringement procedures against Malta. Thus, I can’t understand why the Commission now decided to close its legal procedures if nothing changed.