Green Party chairperson Harry Vassallo, said that Alternattiva Demokratika has been advised by the European Commission’s director general for the environment, that a new complaint has been made against Malta in connection with the proposed development at the former Mistra Village site in Xemxija.

“The European Commission has taken up the matter and will be seeking clarification from the Malta government, and the information we have provided the commission with has been forwarded to the Secretariat General for registration as a formal complaint,” Dr Vassallo said.

“This is only the latest in the long series of proceedings before the commission in which Malta has been involved in response to complaints by EU citizens, whether Maltese or foreign,” Dr Vassallo said. “While it is true that many other member countries also fall foul of their legal obligations under EU law, it is unlikely that there is any other area, or comparable fraction of the EU population which has had cause to raise so many complaints to the EU Commission, or whose government has been found guilty of so many infringements of EU law in such a short time, since membership.”

To drive citizens to sue the government is far from being the normal or acceptable behaviour of a good government. It should be the government which seeks to interpret, and implement, both the letter and the spirit of the law. Instead, it has become normal for the government to behave like an outlaw, and to comply with its obligations only when it is forced to do so, said Dr Vassallo.