MEP Peter Agius is calling on the European Commission services to consider an independent audit and sampling of sea water quality in Malta. “Our families deserve peace of mind that our seas are safe and that sewage is well treated according to EU standards,” said the MEP.
In a statement, Peter Agius 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 MEP pointed out that, “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.”
“Instead of stopping the sewage flows into the sea they 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,” explained the MEP.
He noted that Malta was already in breach of the less strict seawater quality standards and was found in breach in October last year. Agius added that, “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.”
MEP Agius also highlighted another “issue of trust” in water sampling by Maltese authorities. “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,” concluded MEP Agius.
Photo: MEP Peter Agius