The Petitions Committee of the European Parliament has given the European Commission two weeks to come up with a detailed response on progress on a complaint on dust emissions exceeding EU limits in Lija.

The complaint was filed by Lija resident Michael Zammit in 2006, when he said that air quality in Lija suffered from dust emissions from the Blokrete plant. The Commission had already reported that air quality in the Lija neighbourhood was below EU limits.

Intervening during the meeting of the committee today, Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil said that he had visited the plant and although some improvements had been registered, this was clearly not sufficient and more needed to be done. He pointed out that the national authorities had to come up with a list of mandatory measures and a timeframe within which these measures would be implemented.

Dr Busuttil said that since this complaint was filed in 2006 he received several other complaints from residents from other localities, such as Naxxar, San Pawl tat-Targa and Siggiewi. He said that some of these complaints would soon find their way to the Petitions Committee.

Arnold Cassola, Alternattiva Demokratika leader in a statement welcomed the fact that the Petitions Committee decided to ask the Commission to follow up the issue.

"While Malta had applied for an extension in time, the Commission was not satisfied with the plan for achieving the limits the Maltese government had presented, as it lacked sufficient content and details on the measures to be taken". Prof. Cassola said.

"At the end, the Petitions Committee decided to ask the Commission to follow the issue - not only in general, but also in respect of Blokrete and Lija specifically, and to keep the petitions committee updated".