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20 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 MAY 2019 3 May 2009 Malta-Italy tension reaches new heights UNCONFIRMED reports of a meeting between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposi- tion leader Joseph Muscat reached this news- room yesterday, as high tension is building up between Malta and Italy on immigration. The two leaders discussed the situation on the latest incident in which Italian army boats warded off a Maltese patrol boat with 66 mi- grants from entering Lampedusa. Tension is at its highest level ever since the 1980 Saipem inci- dent, when a Maltese-commissioned Italian oil rig was stopped by Libyan gunboats. Thursday's incident overturned Malta's reso- lute stand in the Pinar incident last week, as Italy is now invoking bullying tactics in retaliation. Last week, Malta steadfastly refused to take in 144 stranded migrants aboard the Pinar cargo ship, justifiably claiming that the Italian island of Lampedusa was the nearest, safe port of call. Gonzi had to call counterpart Silvio Ber- lusconi to resolve the matter last week after Italian minister of the interior Roberto Maroni refused to take in the migrants. But in an apparent U-turn of sorts, the gov- ernment has now capitulated to a show of force by the Italian army. On Thursday morning, an Armed Forces of Malta patrol boat had to be despatched to assist 66 migrants on a dinghy 25 miles off Lampedusa, after Rome claimed it had no mili- tary assets available to deploy. Upon its arrival on the scene, the AFM patrol boat found a helicopter of the Italian Guardia di Finanza hovering above the migrants. But their entry to the Italian island of Lampedusa was blockaded by two Italian patrol boats. Sources said "government authorities" told the AFM patrol boat to head back with the migrants. On Friday afternoon, Malta sent a note verbale to Italy, urging it to stop reneging on its interna- tional obligations for refusing to take in the mi- grants. A meeting also took place between For- eign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the Italian Ambassador to Malta, Paolo Andrea Trabalza. The Italians claim Malta is responsible for all migrants saved in its vast search and rescue region. But Malta says it is responsible for the coordination of the rescue missions, and that dis- tressed castaways are to be taken into the nearest, safe port of call, as per international law. Italy is eager to capitalise on its show of strength in a bid to take further control of the Mediterranean waters and increase its influ- ence in NATO. Taking control of Malta's search and rescue region would not only increase its military influence: the SAR region's airspace, also known as the Flight Information Region, is a source of revenue for Malta, since it provides information for the safe and efficient conduct of flights. MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week An election-eve, environmental epiphany Editorial "Every job should be dignified but I do not want a situation where the foreigner is comfortable and the Maltese breaking their backs." Joseph Muscat in his first debate with Adrian Delia on TVM's XTRA TRADITIONALLY, elections have always been a time for public conversions on the road to Damascus. It is only when facing an imminent electoral judgment, that Maltese prime min- isters tend to suddenly realise – like Shake- speare's King Lear – that they "have taken too little care of this". It was almost to be expected, therefore, that a government that has grossly neglected the state of Malta's natural environment, would attempt to make atones for that short- coming in the weeks before a popular vote. It was predictable, too, that the atonement would take the form of a "the biggest project of open public space in an entire genera- tion"… in an as-yet unnamed location. Indeed, this promise is strongly reminis- cent of former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's similar 'environment epiphany' in 2007: when he dropped plans for a golf course to announce a national park in Xaghra l-Hamra: a year after his government had infuriated environmentalists by extending building zones and increasing heights in vil- lage cores. It was also a clear reaction to ris- ing discontent among a category of pale blue voters who, back in 2004, had voted for Ar- nold Cassola in the first MEP elections. The electoral script has changed little since then. Prime Minister Muscat knows that many of those disgruntled Nationalists had rallied to his 'progressive, moderate' theme in 2013. Already disillusioned by Panama- gate, some may now be ruing their change of allegiance for the same reasons as they had turned their back on Gonzi six years ago. These may well constitute a pale red con- stituency which may start asserting itself in mid-term elections, fully knowing that Labour is riding so high in the polls that they can afford to register their protest vote. Added to these there could be more tradi- tional Labour voters who resent their party's transformation into a pro-business party. Joseph Muscat's focus on environmental issues, in his address to the party's general conference on Sunday, suggests that Labour strategists have started to recognise the risk posed by a groundswell of discontentment on environmental issues. This suggests that despite polling high, the party is not taking voters for granted in elections where they won't be voting to choose the country's gov- ernment. Nonetheless, Muscat's speech indicates that his green conversion is at best skin deep, and at worse an exercise in deception. By framing environmental problems as merely a "consequence of progress" – and not the starting point for a radical ecological conver- sion which redefines our idea of 'progress' – it is clear that big business remains firmly fixed at the epicentre of his government's policy attention. It is a mind-frame whereby environmental problems can be solved by dishing out funds for a major recreational project, rather than changing policy direction. But Muscat seems to be forgetting that most of our land use problems stem from the fact that policies have been tailor-made around the needs of big business, with the local community being seen as a mere afterthought. This was clearly the case with the fuel sta- tion policy crafted in 2015, which was so badly skewed to favour a few developers, that the government itself is now ditching it. The question now is: how many more fuel sta- tions will be approved, until a new one re- places the policy? Yet the same attitude has underpinned the government's attitude to construction and planning throughout. Elected in 2013 on a platform which promised social impact as- sessments on major economic decisions, Muscat's government has constantly failed to assess the impact of its planning policies: like the metric conversion of the height of floors in local plans, which led to an onslaught of demolition works. The endless redevelopment brought about by a combination of the 2006 local plans and Labour's tinkering has also come at a direct social cost. For example, elderly people are spending the few years left of their lives buried in construction sites, and in terror of a repetition of a third-party collapse, as happened in Gwardamangia. People with pushchairs cannot even pass comfortably on pavements without inhaling cigarette smoke from diners accommodated on road-side platforms. No amount of economic growth will ever compensate for this loss of serenity in daily life. To be really meaningful, even the creation of such an open recreational space should at least involve a transfer of presently developa- ble land back to the community: for example, re-appropriating land already earmarked for development, like the Jerma or Manoel Island (possibly putting IIP money to good use)… or by putting an end to discussions on privatis- ing the White Rocks site, and immediately restoring it back to the public as a park. On the plus side, the very fact that Muscat is now belatedly seeking to address the con- sequences of his own policies, suggests that he is mildly concerned. But there is more at stake than Labour's success in yet another election. Unless there is a serious, urgent revision of government's environmentalist policies – which offers long-term solutions, rather than short-term fixes – Joseph Muscat risks going down in history as part of the cause of Malta's environmental degradation. A token "project of open public space" will surely be welcomed; but such tokenism, no matter how big, cannot compensate for the damage done today.