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15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 MAY 2022 NEWS EUROPE These articles are part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Israel MEP ban: Palestine delegation says Metsola raised complaint with Lapid MATTHEW VELLA European Parliament presi- dent Roberta Metsola was re- ported to have raised the issue of Israel's blacklisting of MEP Manu Pineda, in a meeting with foreign minister Yair Lap- id. Pineda, chair of the EP's del- egation to Palestine, was de- clared a persona non gratae by the Israeli government ahead of a visit to the occupied terri- tories with a group of six MEPs and their staff. Metsola was in Israel this week to address the Knesset as well as to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. In a press conference in Brus- sels, Pineda – a Spanish MEP from the United European Left – said he was informed that Metsola had communicated her complaint on the black- listing to foreign minister Yair Lapid. "The foreign minister has maintained his stance, stating that in no way would they re- verse the decision. We hope this can be changed... other- wise we would have to forward a reciprocal request vis-a-vis Israeli MPs," Pineda told the press on Tuesday. "We as a delegation would re- quest this to the president, who would then have to decide on this request." Pineda said he hoped Israel would rectify what he said was "an unjustified mistake to sanc- tion the European Parliament." "We will allow president Met- sola room for manouevre," Pineda said. Pineda also said that the del- egation had spoken to the EU's external affairs commissioner Josep Borrell, but said he pre- ferred to see Metsola deal with the matter. The European Parliament's Palestine Delegation had scheduled an official mission to Palestine on 23 May, led by Pineda. The delegation aimed to as- sess the situation of the Pales- tinian population, and it was its first mission following the COVID-19 pandemic and last year's war in Gaza. Visits to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and the Gaza Strip were on the agen- da, to meet civil society stake- holders, different political and institutional actors and media organisations to understand the situation following the as- sassination of Palestinian jour- nalist Shireen Abu Akleh. For more than a decade, Is- raeli authorities have denied the European Parliament ac- cess to Gaza. On Sunday, 22 May, MEPs were once more not allowed to enter. "Once again, Israel is putting the brakes on Parliament's at- tempts and work to assess the situation of the people in Pal- estine," Pineda said. "It maintains its opacity about its human rights violations against the population of occu- pied Palestine. The Israeli oc- cupation cannot have control over access to Palestine. Nor can it stand in the way of the European Parliament's work to ensure that the Palestinian people are heard". Spanish MEP Manu Pineda Sant: green kerosene tax to reduce island's competitiveness SEBASTIAN VASSALLO During a debate in the Eco- nomic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), former Prime Minister Alfred Sant urged caution and further thought on the matter of a 'green kerosene tax' being sug- gested as a reform to the energy taxation directive (ETD). Sant pointed out that a pro- posal to introduce a levy over ten years on jet fuel would re- sult in a "straight reduction in the economic competitiveness of island and peripheral desti- nations." Sant suggested that instead of a total exemption covering air travel to islands, the solution would be graduating the meas- ures being applied in a different manner over ten years, "so as to safeguard the competitivity of the tourism and other econom- ic sectors of these areas given the disadvantages they carry due to insularity and distance." Sant acknowledged that the proposed measures were "im- portant, indeed vital", but that they had to be "balanced and fair across the board to all the European stakeholders that will be affected by them." Sant cited the fact that the proposal would only apply to intra-European Union flights as problematic. "Firstly, this would result in effectively sub- siding European and non-Eu- ropean mega airlines. Secondly, this would penalise islands, as well as remote and peripheral regions." Sant said that a lot of these economies of these regions were heavily reliant on tourism revenue that airline flights gen- erate, and that this would be most acutely felt in the case of islands where "there exists no road or rail alternatives to tour- ism travel, as is the case in the major European destinations." With the support of other MEPs in the ECON commit- tee, Sant tabled a number of amendments to the directive in line with his points of concern. The European Union's Energy Taxation Directive entered in- to force in 2003. In July 2021, the European Commission pre- sented a proposal for the re- vision of the Energy Taxation Directive and proposed a new legislation that would tax pro- cesses which create greater cli- mate warming. The aim of the proposed directive is to align the taxation of energy products with European energy and cli- mate policies. Labour MEP Alfred Sant