The lack of coordination between ministries currently sharing the responsibilities of one or more aspects of the environment is becoming very apparent, particularly to those directly involved in the sector.

The new cabinet announced in March sets the Prime Minister himself at the helm of the environment sector and a division of labour “set-up” unequally distributed between three other ministries namely, the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry, the Infrastructure, Transport and Communications Ministry and the Gozo Ministry. Whether the move will bring about the perceived positive results that will enable the government to surmount the ever increasing environmental deficit remains to be seen. After all the hype by GonziPN, the public expects results.

Many of those directly or indirectly involved in the planning and environmental management sectors argue that it is yet unclear whether the choice of ministries entrusted with the different tasks was actually a wise move. Strictly speaking it should be quite unlikely that the Prime Minister’s office should find it an easy task to control or even manage the modus operandi of all these ministries, which now share a part of the environment portfolio so that they form one coherent framework at the policy-making level.

Close scrutiny of the situation reveals a complex distribution of responsibilities. The Malta Transport Authority, for instance, is now responsible for implementing measures designed to reduce air pollution from transport sources while at the same time the air pollution monitoring aspects still fall within the remit of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s Environment Directorate.

Likewise, the control of littering and illegal dumping has been dispersed among a myriad of entities that include social policy, Mepa, health, administrative law enforcement and local councils. Sounds funny but in practice none of these is clear enough where each respective responsibility starts or ends! Doubts already seem to be arising as to whether all these entities can cooperate effectively and in the right direction to fulfil the country’s waste management needs. Will all these entities act in unity, as one synergistic whole?

It is well-known that the various ministries involved are already heavily overloaded and in many cases lack of staff and adequately trained personnel is more than evident. If experience should mirror future performance it is fairly reasonable to expect that all this partitioning and so called “division of labour” within the environment portfolio should easily lead to almost insurmountable coordination problems which would require more than a prime minister’s firm and decisive action to overcome.

In the meantime, we are dished with yet another document with proposals on Mepa reform. Well done! The document has just been presented to the Prime Minister by the outgoing Mepa chairman and his collaborators within the board. The document, which I honestly consider very insightful, basically constitutes a top-up to the Scicluna Report published and discussed just a few weeks ago and to which Labour has already reacted positively and expressed its satisfaction.

We hope the Prime Minister gives due consideration to all the proposals he is being faced with on the Mepa reform but there is one thorny issue in all this talk about “reform” and it’s all about attracting people into Mepa or, at least, stopping the authority’s human resources haemorrhage. Let us be honest about it – who would ever believe Mepa reform to constitute the essence of real reform if we fail to address Mepa’s most fundamental problem, that is, the recruitment of adequately qualified individuals coupled with the further training of the authority’s present staff. The public wants real reform that ultimately leads to truly credible results, and not just the usual playing of musical chairs!

The election of a new leader may have rendered the Labour Party in a temporary state of flux, but that doesn’t mean the MLP has detached itself from any of the developments that are taking place within environment and planning policy. Far from it! We have been and shall continue to monitor closely the Mepa reform programme, and we expect to be consulted on the matter even at Parliamentary level.

We want to improve on our green credentials and we aspire to achieve this not just by putting forward our own proposals and suggestions on Mepa reform when the time is ripe to do so, but also more holistically; we need to think in terms of what Labour can do to contribute more directly towards the country’s need to meet its EU obligations, for example.

As always, Labour is open to suggestions!

Roderick Galdes is Labour’s spokesman for the environment and national heritage