PN MEP Peter Agius has called on European Commission services to consider an independent audit and sampling of sea water quality in Malta.

"After the deletion by stealth of sensitive areas to bypass EU sewage treatment rules, we cannot trust the Government with proper monitoring of sea water quality," Agius said. "Our families deserve peace of mind that our seas are safe and that sewage is well treated according to EU standards."

Agius has condemned the Maltese Government's recent decision "to remove sensitive area designations from coastal waters near sewage treatment plants," calling it a deliberate move to avoid stricter EU environmental obligations.

"The editorial deletion, as mandated by a Ministerial bye-law and exposed by the Nationalist Party this week, means that for the next EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive reporting cycle, Malta will designate no coastal waters as sensitive to sewage flows in the sea," he said.

"Instead of stopping the sewage flows into the sea,t hey just deleted the maps." Agius said. "The government is rolling back the Maltese law in an attempt to bypass EU scrutiny. It will not work! A revised EU Directive entered into force in January this year with stricter controls and environmental limits on the release of nutrients into the environment and additional new standards on micropollutants," he continued.

Malta was already in breach of the less strict seawater quality standards and was found in breach in October last year, he said. :After this judgement, revised, stricter standards now came into force, putting into question the Government's capacity to keep up with the new, higher standards."

He said that the European Commission has "clearly expressed doubts on the testing protocols and reliability of sea water testing by Maltese authorities in the procedures leading to the court case last year."

"Now that we see the government's attempts to remove sensitive areas from our laws, doubt also arises regarding the reliability of seawater testing and monitoring, as foreseen in the revised EU directives with higher standards. This is why I am formally calling on the Commission to consider an audit including independent testing of seawater quality in Malta as foreseen in the revised Directive," he said.