The organisations claim that the absence of environmental NGOs in the consultation brings shame on our government as it is an insult to the Aarhus Convention (which Malta has signed) and a breach of the spirit of participatory democracy advocated by the European Commission Environmental Directorate. Furthermore, the NGOs have expressed their dismay at the manner in which the whole consultation process on this important environmental measure was handled.
The NGOs insist that during the revision of the fiscal system:
• Waste tariffs are separated from eco tax measures and described as such so as to stop giving eco tax a bad name and losing its long-term potential as a tool for attaining sustainability. Eco taxes are meant to push the general public to opt for environmentally-friendly products and to consume less, and to push manufacturers to initiate measures to use less material and collect used material for reuse and/or recycling;
• The revenue collected from the waste tariffs should go to a transparently managed waste management fund which can be used to finance WasteServe and promote waste management projects in public and private enterprises.
Differential tariffs for environmentally friendly, environmentally less friendly and environmentally harmful products should be present in all measures of the eco tax part of the fiscal system, rather than flat rates;
• The revenue collected from the eco tax part of the fiscal system should go into a transparently managed environmental fund;
• An educational campaign should be earmarked to explain the “Polluter Pays Principle” and the “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” concept to the public.
The NGOs said they will fully support eco taxes as long as they are applied discriminately to ensure that anyone who uses harmful products excessively, or instead of other more eco-friendly substitutes, pays. The NGOs will be advising European Commission officials at the earliest opportunity about what they call government’s mishandling of the eco tax system and its absence of consultation.