Twenty one Maltese youths who are currently in Bonn, Germany, taking part in the international youth summit, this morning joined in solidarity with the national protest in Valletta against the development of Żonqor point before the start of the event.

AD Chairperson Professor Arnold Cassola, who was one of the speakers for the event, said that “the environmental and social costs of developing such pristine area would bear upon generation of Maltese still to come”. 

The youths are in Germany as part of an international youth summit on ethical and responsible consumption with over ninety participants from Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy and Belgium. Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust, which is the partner organisation from the mentioned countries, coordinated the participation of the Maltese during the seminar.

During the summit, Prof. Cassola explained his personal experiences as a green politician while serving as a secretary general of the European Greens, a former member of the Italian parliament and a chairperson of the Maltese Green Party.

Together with Sergio Chavez a Latin American trade unionist, Prof. Cassola informed participants on the lobby power large multinational corporations have at both national parliamentary level as well as the European Parliament level. They encouraged participants to support environmental organisations in forming their own lobbies so that they counter the lobbyists representing these multinationals that in a number of cases, have no scruples with violating labour rights as well as in excessive pollution.

One important point that emerged during the seminar was the importance of educating both adults and youths about the importance of choosing responsibly what to purchase and consume. Reference was also drawn to the externalisation of environmental and social costs in most products consumed since we rarely pay for the environmental and social damage done by products that we consume.

During his speech Arnold Cassola drew reference to the encyclical document released by the Pope Francis released on Thursday 18th June on climate change and environmental issues where the pontiff encouraged all persons to do their part in safeguarding the environment.