In European plans to rein back climate warming, naturally one finds an emphasis to reduce, as much as possible, the consumption of products which generate such warming. A mechanism by which to achieve that aim especially in the energy sector, is to raise taxes on products that are unfriendly to the climate, so that they are used less and/or alternatives to them are sought.

At the top of this list, comes aviation. Flights require the ignition of kerosenes and other carburants that cause signficant damage to climate stability. So, it is being proposed to gradually increase taxes on aviation kerosene. But what sounds strange about this proposal is that these taxes would apply only to flights lasting up to 3 to 4 hours. Longer flights – intercontinental ones – would face no tax increase.

Now, it has been claimed that the kerosenes used for longhaul flights create the maximum damage to the environment. Why this decision then? Officially we have been told that there are international aviation services agreements which ban taxation on the fuel of long haul flights. Others claim that the decision has been taken to give a leg up to the major European airlines, like Air France, KLM and Lufthansa.

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IMMIGRATION

Immigration remains a topic about which there is no real consensus among European states. It will keep on provoking misunderstandings between citizens, communities and governments. One problem is that all those having some stake in the issue are likely to view everything in black and white.

Yet so many shades exist between the two extremes that they cannot just be ignored.

Those who insist that frontiers should be opened altogether to let immigants in, give no attention to the social and economic clashes that could follow. Those who wish, at all costs, to establish a fortress Europe, hardly care about the fascistic repercussions that could ensue.

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VALLETTA

The Covid pandemic disrupted the huge progress that in past years, occured in Valletta. For long years, the city seemed to have lost inhabitants, businesses. Then, all of a sudden (though this may not be the correct way to describe what actually happened), it took off again. It became a tourist hot spot, with lots of people coming to visit, and new investments in retail outlets, residences, restaurants and agoras. Some new bouttique hotels were opened in the centre and they brought more bustle and life to the overall environment.

True, there were some rather valid criticisms raised about how the city had ended up as a bourgeois enclave: the right word is gentrification. But I don’t think that this is such a bad deal, so long as it is not replicated elsewhere.

We also get complaints that some areas of Valletta still remain rundown. That’s also true. But change must start from somewhere.

The focus should now be... in the wake of the pandemic’s retreat... for all the forces that were militating in favour of Valletta’s renewal to be mobilised again at their full strength.