Less than 24 hours after Nationalist MEPs voted to allow car manufacturers to produce and market cars that exceeded the EU cancer-causing pollutant limits indefinitely, shadow minister Claudette Buttigieg said the Nationalist Party was committed to the fight against cancer, AD spokesman Ralph Cassar said.

He said MEPs David Casa, Roberta Metsola and Therese Commodini Cachia have shown that for all its fancy conferences about the environment, the PN did not have a holistic and deep understanding of the ecology and when push came to shove chose to favour the strong car manufacturer lobby.

This was done to the detriment of the Maltese people’s health, AD said.

TO REDUCE ISSUE TO CANCER SHOWS LACK OF RESPECT - PN

In a reply, the PN's head of delegation David Casa said the EPP MEPs voted to significantly cut pollution emissions from diesel cars in the short term. The alternative was vetoing the agreement which would have led to creating a legal vacuum for at least two years combined with uncertainty for car owners and the industry and absolutely no progress for the environment.

Now, the EU could rapidly implement the on-road tests, which together with the planned Commission proposals for a major overhaul of the EU type approval framework, would make it very difficult for the car industry to circumvent the emissions requirements.

"We would happily have a debate of ideas with Alternattiva on these issues and others but to reduce the issue to having voted in favour or against cancer shows lack of respect, especially on World Cancer Day," Mr Casa said.