He made these claims during a seminar entitled Polluter Pays organised by the Siggiewi Action Group (Sage), and said that to solve Malta’s environmental problems, everyone needed to work together on a national level.

Mr Farrugia said the MLP had always been consistent in its belief in the “polluter pays” principle and said that since 1996 the party had hankered for this principle to be implemented. He said: “The MLP has always consulted everyone, especially environmental NGOs who were always involved in the MLP’s policy-making process.”

While the Opposition was firmly in favour of any initiatives to help protect the environment, Mr Farrugia said, the polluter pays principle should not be allowed to be used as a false front.

The MLP stressed the importance of prevention, he said. “Prevention comes as a result of educating people. But we also need to see reform in regulatory institutions. Especially in the sense that there needs to be a clear distinction between bodies that safeguard the environment and those who regulate development.”

Mr Farrugia said that now the government had the EU watchdog on its back, it was taking decisions that were hurried and mistaken, such as the decision to put engineered landfills near heritage sites.

“It needed the resignation of the former prime minister to make the PN sit up and realise that there are alternatives,” said Mr Farrugia, pointing out that the MLP had long ago put forward the idea of alternatives that can eliminate the need for a landfill.