Anġlu Farrugia, Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday addressed the 4th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, which the Inter-Parliamentary Union is organising at the UN Headquarters in New York. 

Speaker Farrugia spoke on the theme “Placing Democracy at the service of peace and sustainable development, building the world the people want”.

In his address, he referred to climate change and urged “national governments worldwide to collaborate and coordinate concerted efforts towards overcoming the challenges posed by climate change.”

He said that “Malta firmly believes that the challenges of irregular migration in the Mediterranean can only be addressed holistically by affording protection to the vulnerable but also by working with partner countries in Africa to stem the flow of irregular migrants.”

In this regard, he mentioned the Valletta Summit on Migration, which will take place in Malta in November 2015 between the EU Member States and key African partners, and which will serve as an opportunity to address the challenges of migration flows into Europe with important African countries of origin and transit.

He then referred to religious freedom, saying that democracy cannot be placed at the service of peace unless religious freedom is respected. “We live in a free society where all beliefs are equal. We should love and respect each other irrespective of religious belief; without this love and tolerance we cannot build the world the people want”, he added.

He concluded by welcoming the new development agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and stressed that elected officials in developing countries have the responsibility to keep pushing for progress, since documents do not transform the world but people do.

The Maltese Parliamentary delegation composed of Censu Galea, Deborah Schembri, David Agius and Deo Debattista.