Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506016
12 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 AUGUST 2023 One in two Maltese find it hard to access a green space Meilaq publishes KMB's final missive on 'EU's sins' JAMES DEBONO RESPONDENTS in a Eurobarometer survey carried out in May were asked how easy or difficult it is for them to ac- cess nature and green spaces: in Malta, only 51% claim that access to green spac- es is easy. In the rest of the EU, more than three in four respondents found it easy to access nature and green spaces, with the per- centage go up to over 91% in 17 member states. But in Malta, only one in two respond- ents find accessing green spaces easy. In contrast 22% of Maltese say it is 'very difficult' for them to access nature while 27% say it is 'rather difficult'. Overall, in the EU only one in ten (9%) say it is difficult for them to access na- ture and green spaces. Respondents in Denmark say this ac- cess is easy (100%), as do 99% in Slove- nia, Finland and Sweden. At the other end of the scale 51% of respondents in Malta, 76% in Romania and 77% in Por- tugal say the same. The surveys shows that respondents in northern and western areas of the EU are the most likely to find it easy to access nature and green spaces, while those in the more arid Mediterranean and East- ern Europe are more likely to find it dif- ficult. The Maltese are among the most like- ly in Europe to feel personally exposed to the impacts of climate change. While in the EU 37% feel directly exposed, the percentage rises to 63% in Malta. The Maltese come second in Europe after the Portuguese (64%) when feeling personal- ly exposed to climate change. Another survey held last year had shown that the Maltese are the most likely in Europe to report having to walk "more than half an hour" to reach the nearest green space. While only 3% of all EU respondents reported having to walk more than 30 minutes, in Malta 21% reported having to walk the same distance. And while 50% of all European live within a 5-min- ute distance of the nearest green space, in Malta only 22% report living in such proximity to green spaces. The present government is committed to invest €700 million in urban greening projects over the next seven years amidst rising concern on the loss of green spaces to development and increased building density in Maltese towns and villages. An agency called Project Green was set up last year to coordinate the proposed investment, which includes several am- bitious projects to shift main roads un- derground and build gardens above them. Artist impressions and plans for the first of these projects along San Gwann's main road were unveiled earlier this year, however, no timeline has yet been set for the project to get underway. The ambitious proposals mentioned in the electoral manifesto, included plans to roof over part of the road just outside the Santa Venera tunnels and shift St Anne Street in Floriana underground. MATTHEW VELLA FORMER trade unionist Sammy Meilaq has authored a new set of memoirs focusing on his mil- itancy alongside former Labour prime ministers Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in the eurosceptic organisation Front Maltin Inqumu. Meilaq's book – 'L-Aħħar Test- ment ta' Karmenu Mifsud Bonn- ici – Dnubiet u Profeziji' – pub- lished on the 11th anniversary from the death of Mintoff on 20 August, collects ideas on the political thought of Mintoff and Mifsud Bonnici on the European Union, and Malta's international relations. "It's not a historical chronicle of the organization," Meilaq says. "It considers how things currently are at local, European and glob- al level, and how they could and ought to develop in the future." Meilaq's work delivers, as ex- pected, a treatment of what he calls the EU's "non-democratic centralisation" in decision-mak- ing, accusing the entity of aban- doning its founding fathers' pursuit of peace, and instead adopting neoliberal policies that have made poverty endemic and widened the chasm between the haves and have-nots. Meilaq elaborates on Mintoff's and Mifsud Bonnici's criticism of Malta's EU accession treaty, and the "undignified" role the island has played in the EU over the last two decades by not steering Brus- sels away "from the nefarious path of militarism, neo-liberalism and undemocratic centralism." He criticises Malta's role in sup- porting British, American and French interventionism in Libya in 2011, and is also critical of the Labour Party's "submissive atti- tude" to EU decisions, "making it an accomplice to the sins of this institution." With a foreword from the late Mifsud Bonnici in what could be his last public statement, the book carries the former prime minister's own disquisition on the Russian war in Ukraine, of which he still accuses the EU of failing to mediate for a diplomatic solution. The final chapter is a critical epi- logue penned by lecturer Michael Grech on the book itself. The book will be on sale from most bookshops. Former trade unionist Sammy Meilaq publishes Mifsud Bonnici's last essay on the EU's sins of omission on Russia and Ukraine L-Aħħar Testment ta' Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – Dnubiet u Profeziji B'Kelmtejn ta' Qabel ta' Dr. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. B'Epilogu Kritiku ta' Dr. Michael Grech. Sammy Meilaq: Sammy Meilaq (centre) with former prime ministers Kamrenu Mifsud Bonnici (left) and Dom Mintoff The Secret Garden, a previously inaccessible area at Romeo Romano Garden in Santa Venera, was opened to the public as part of a drive to increase green areas within Malta's towns