Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s promise to assume prime ministerial responsibility for the reform of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was an admission that George Pullicino’s tenure as Environment Minister has been a total failure, the Labour Party’s main spokesman on the environment, Joe Brincat, and spokesman, Roderick Galdes, said.

It was amazing that the Prime Minister was not embarrassed to speak about a reform of the authority when just over a year ago it was his own government which had disregarded everyone, including the authority and environmental bodies, to extend the development zones. This was apart from an interminable list of controversial projects pushed by Nationalist diehards.

The MLP and environmental organisations, the spokesmen said, had for years been complaining about the Mepa and it was laughable that Dr Lawrence Gonzi was speaking about a reform of the Mepa as if he had taken up the Labour Party’s document on the environment, and copied everything in it. The MLP had nothing against the distribution of energy saving bulbs and was for large scale projects of clean energy, wind or solar, so long as this was sustainable.

The spokesmen said the MLP was also all for initiatives to improve the environment in Gozo but the reality was that Dr Gonzi’s government was one of “too little too late” and could never be believed on this. Even on hunting and trapping, the Nationalist government had unashamedly deceived everyone, as verified by EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas.