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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 • 12 MAY 2019 13 May 2009 Frattini hits back at PM's 'disgusted' comment CONFUSION reigns supreme in Malta's rela- tions with Italy, as both governments seem to be losing the "perfect tandem" announced last Sunday by Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici. A 'surprise' attempt by Rome last Monday to disembark 69 migrants in Malta after being rescued off Lampedusa by an Italian frigate, triggered more tensions, even though the issue was retracted by Rome a few hours after and downplayed by the Maltese government. But the 'perfect tandem' was further shattered by comments made by Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini in yesterday's influential Cor- riere della Sera, who hit back at Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's "disgust" at Italy's alleged intransigence in saving migrant lives at sea. Franco Frattini – who just two weeks ago ex- pressed his intent of working closely with Mal- ta on the issue of migration – lifted a copy of Médecins Sans Frontières and was quoted by the Corriere: "I am in possession of this report about the detention centres in Malta. It speaks about 'inhuman treatment', and includes pho- tographs. They are prisons with bars. Chicken pens. As for children, they eat in a pig sty. This report is not Berlusconi's, it's MsF" he said. Frattini's remarks are reported to have irked Castille, while a senior Foreign Office official told this paper that Minister Tonio Borg "has no intention of replying." As the Italian media continued to lambaste Malta over migrants, Carm Mifsud Bonnici was doing all he could to keep focused on ex- ploiting the current "unwritten" accord Italy says it has reached with Libya to forcefully repatriate migrants intercepted at sea. Carm Mifsud Bonnici insists the Maltese government is intent on "strengthening the net" with Italy to block migrant boats from reaching the coast. Speaking to MaltaToday, he expressed himself as "very eager" to travel to Libya with his Italian counterpart Roberto Maroni, in a bid to secure the same deal with the Ghaddafi regime. But while Mifsud Bonnici says the two coun- tries are working in perfect tandem, and that the Maltese government is intent on strengthening the net with Italy to block migrant boats, a sen- ior Armed Forces officer has admitted with this newspaper that the 'Plan of Action' approved by Cabinet a week ago, invoking right of passage to migrants at sea towards their ultimate destina- tion, "is still in force." Maltese patrol boats are the only naval assets deployed far south off Malta as part of the Fron- tex patrols, and are reported to have "sighted" and "assisted" at least four migrant boats during this week. Both the government, and the Armed Forces have strongly denied that migrant boats inter- cepted by the Frontex patrols have been refu- elled and ordered to turn back to Libya. MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week Parks are needed where people live Editorial "Don't tell me you are against land reclamation because you have a sea view that will be lost." Environment Minister José Herrera steels the public for land reclamation THE decision to create a national park in Birzebbugia, instead of an extension to the Freeport – and also to enlarge the existing Ta Qali national park – is good news, in the sense that it creates much-needed recreation- al space. But it should not be seen as a sort of com- pensation for inevitable over-development in urban areas, and for the urban sprawl in the countryside. At the risk of criticising an otherwise com- mendable project, both the Birzebbugia and Ta' Qali sites – as well as the Majjistral park before them – lie 'off the beaten path', and for most people must be reached by car, which in a certain sense undermines part of their pur- pose: i.e., to maximise clean, fresh air. But apart from this 'technical' digression: the planting of more trees is welcome anywhere… yet it is clearly needed most in the densely populated areas where a concentration of people live and breathe. No amount of distant public parks can compensate for the lack of any breathing space from fumes and construc- tion in one's own locality. One must acknowledge the difficulty in pro- viding such spaces in heavily built-up areas. In the Birzebbugia case, the demolition of a factory and its transformation in a public park required welcome government intervention. This underscores that the State has a role to play in reclaiming land for the community, even at the cost of compensating owners of derelict buildings. It also illustrates that the State can and sometimes does resort to this… raising inevitable questions as to why it is se- lective when it comes to expropriating land for public/social purposes. Given the amount of vacant properties in heavily built-up urban areas, the measure should be contemplated more often: always, it must be insisted, on the basis of adequate compensation at current market prices. Ide- ally a national fund should be created for this purpose and a committee appointed to give priority to sites/ buildings/gardens which can be expropriated and restored to public use – well, what's the use of the National Develop- ment and Social Fund, anyway? The gain in this case is that Maltese families have more recreational space for them to en- joy their weekends in peace and tranquillity. But this should not be framed as a balancing act which absolves the government of its duty to protect the very neighbourhoods in which these people live. The scale of construction in urban areas has been unprecedented in the past years, thanks to the 2006 local plan poli- cies and extension to the building zones, and their revision in favour of even more develop- ment under Labour after 2013. Nor does it absolve government from pro- tecting the countryside, which is increasingly under pressure by the multitude of small scale developments permitted under existing poli- cies. Unfortunately, the Labour government has only further tinkered with policies in favour of developers. This has turned Maltese neighbourhoods in- to veritable construction sites. Elderly people are practically spending the last years of their lives at the mercy of contractors. After dec- ades of bias for development, it is no longer the time for balancing acts – reminiscent of the decision by the Gonzi administration to declare Xaghra l-Hamra a natural park a year after extending development zones by an area the size of Siggiewi. The balance must now shift in favour of the environment and local communities. Politically, this has to be reflected in a shift from pro-business policies to pro-community policies. On their part, businesses must also start per- ceiving themselves as being members of the community. One also hopes that the government extends the same principle to other sites, especially those already earmarked for major develop- ment. The White Rocks site and Manoel Is- land are both cases in point. Moreover, in view of the government surplus, dishing more public land to accommodate more develop- ment is not on. Jerma is another case where government can intervene to reclaim back land to prevent high-rise development which would overshadow the local community, or the Trade Fair grounds in Naxxar, amongst others. Ideally landowners may also show a sense of civic pride, relinquishing some of their devel- opment rights to leave a lasting legacy: some- thing done by many landowning families in other countries who bestowed areas of public space to the community. The timing of the launch of this public park was also unfortunate. Coming right in the middle of an electoral campaign, and in the face of criticism over the government's envi- ronmental track record, it does come across as greenwash, simply for the reason that this positive step is not being accompanied by a radical revision of planning policies; and by giving the ERA a real say on the determina- tion of planning applications. Consider that the Labour government is hell bent on proceeding with destructive projects like land reclamation and the Gozo tunnel; even changes to controversial policies such as the fuel stations rules will only take shape after the approval of even more fuel stations under the 2015 policy. Meanwhile, people are being suffocated by development in their immediate environ- ment. This problem needs an effective solution, which can only be brought about by reducing the scale of permissible development, inter- vening to create more public space to commu- nities, and revising planning policies which make this onslaught possible.