Martin Galea De Giovanni – Friends of the Earth (Malta) director, is to be the ENGOs’ representative on the board of the Environmental Resources Authority. He will be replacing Prof Alan Deidun who resigned his post earlier this year

He was nominated for the post by a number of activist groups who have also reiterated their call for ERA board meetings to be made public.

Since joining FoEM in 2000, Martin Galea De Giovanni has been responsible for issues relating to various environmental topics with a main focus on agriculture, biodiversity, waste and climate justice.

He also represents FoEM at international meetings and serves as an Executive Board Member at Friends of the Earth Europe in Brussels. De Giovanni holds an M.Sc in Environmental Management and Planning from the University of Malta.

In a statement, the groups thanked outgoing representative Prof Deidun and praised his sterling service on the ERA board right up to his resignation.

The groups have also reiterated their call for ERA’s board meetings to be open to the public, noting that their request has already been relayed twice to Environmental Minister Aaron Farrugia, “however no reply has been forthcoming.”

They said that, “in the interests of transparency and integrity, the public should be able to follow and make representations during ERA board meetings, where important decisions affecting the environment and everyone’s quality of life are taken. The current system makes it impossible for residents to be represented. We also believe that the votes of every board member should be minuted and made public, in line with the principle of responsibility.”

The groups are also asking for changes to PA and ERA regulations so as to be able to nominate a substitute for Mr Galea De Giovanni as well as the NGO representative on the Planning Board.

“There have already been two key Planning Authority hearings where the NGOs’ representative was forced to recuse herself for having previously declared her vote – by simply carrying out her duty and voting in an earlier hearing on the same case. This led to an unjust situation where the NGOs were robbed of their vote and voice on the PA board, and by extension, robbed thousands of residents and objectors of their representation,” they said.

The ENGOs concluded by saying that, “we believe that both of our demands are in line with the concept of transparency pledged by Dr Farrugia upon becoming Minister for the Environment, and he should be acting to rectify two situations which put us and citizens at a further disadvantage. We look forward to seeing Dr Farrugia implement these changes to guarantee our representation.”

The ENGOs are:

Moviment Graffitti

BirdLife Malta

Rota

Malta Youth in Agriculture (MaYa)

Nature Trust (Malta)

Friends of the Earth

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA)

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