The Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, yesterday met Dr Mario Demarco MP , Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, The Environment and Culture and discussed at lenght the National Environment Policy Document issued for consultation .
GRTU, led by its President Paul Abela outlined that this document is a very ambitous project and Government should make sure that it will not only has the resources to manage and implement such a policy but also the required funds to make sure that this National Environment Policy is implemented without hiccups.
During the meeting, Parliamentary Secretary Dr Mario Demarco outlined that this Policy document is not a ‘fait accompli'. It is now in the interest of the Government to make sure that consultation is held with all the stake holders. Dr Demarco duly noted that prior to the issue of this Policy Document, Government Authorities were consulted and their commitment to the Policy Document was included.
Dr Demarco further outlined that this Policy Document covers a ten year period up to the year 2020. However most of the polices or measures to be implemented would take longer. Dr Demarco continued to state that the community deserves a better environment and the Government is obliged to provide the frame work to make sure that the measures of this Policy when finalised are put in place. He further outlined that in some areas of the document, the Government decided to go beyond EU requisites.
GRTU stated that the final result of this National Environment Policy should make sure that in respect to the measures relating to ‘Greening the Economy' , mainly market based instruments, environmental taxation, green jobs, and enabling the private sector, should take into consideration the result of an impact assesment which should take place before any of these measures actually come into force.
On measures relating to Waste, GRTU was asked to prepare a document and forward this to the Office of the Prime Minister for evaluation. Other issues discussed during the meeting included resources such as stone , soil and land.
In relation to renewable energies, GRTU representative Noel Gauci outlined that measures taken up for this sector need to be sustainable and in the long term. A number of measures towards more use of solar energy, photovoltiacs, wave energy should be taken into consideration but measures of a specific nature in relation to the sector need to be tailor made for Malta.
GRTU finally noted that the National Environment Policy is a step in the right direction, however the Authorities working on such a document needs to continue to keep its feet to the ground at implementation stage.