I attended a meeting organised by Labour MEP Miriam Dalli on proposals for a serious reduction in emissions on new cars of nearly 40 per cent by 2030. Apparently, the measure was adopted legally by the EU last month.

One cannot understand the reason why she is so focused solely on new car emissions. There was no mention of measures to be imposed on used vehicles.

Had she consulted the web, she would have realised she was barking up the wrong tree because the bulk of emissions emanate mainly from used cars imported from the UK and Japan as well as from luxury liners entering our ports, from planes flying overhead and in a huge way also from trucks and construction sites.

Dalli’s pièce de résistance was her answer to a member of ACIM, the Association of Car Importers in Malta, present. She said a new car today will be a second-hand car tomorrow. Had she consulted the web again, she would have realised that while it is true that one new car will become a six-year-old vehicle in six years’ time, on the other hand, a six-year-old imported car today will be a 12-year-old wreck in six years’ time.

Instead of supporting and promoting the nearly 40 per cent cut in emissions, Dalli should have insisted with our government that the 51 per cent-plus share of the local car market is causing asthma, heart disease and cancer, resulting in a serious decrease in our lifespan and that, therefore, these should carry heavier taxes so the high percentage of used imported cars would be reduced.

For the last 65 years, I have been personally following closely the European car market and the local car scene. If Dalli requires some information about these two subjects, I would be only too glad to fill her in.