NEWS | Wednesday, 07 January 2009

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Labour’s environment spokesperson Leo Brincat has accused Lawrence Gonzi of dragging his feet on the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive, which lays down efficiency standards for new buildings.
“This procrastination should not only concern Maltese citizens, but it also goes against government’s declared policy to introduce measures that are ‘energy efficient’ in the country, while increasing the risk of fines from the EU for breaching such an important environmental law.”
Brincat said 30% of energy consumed in our country and the EU goes towards heating and cooling.
“Although the government has adopted this directive as part of its laws for last year, in a bid to implement it by the start of this year, it is believed that no preparations are yet in place for the introduction of this environmental directive,” Brincat said.
The Labour MP pointed our that Article 5 of this directive was never transposed into Maltese law, which allowed mega projects like Smart City to abscond from obligations to introduce elements of alternative energy and CHP (combined heat and power).
“This is a long saga that goes back three years since the matter was raised in the Cabinet for the first time, to decide who was responsible for the enforcement of these rules. It’s a matter that has stayed in limbo for all these years,” Brincat said.
The Labour also pointed out that although the legal notice for the transposition of the directive was issued back in October 2008, no subsequent legal notice was issued to actually enact the law.
“Legal notice 238 of 2004, which came into force on 1 January 2007 already stipulate that every building in our country had to conform to minimum energy efficieny standards.
“This means that every application received by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority after the 2 January 2007, should have conformed to these standards.”
Brincat said it was in the public interest to know how many of these applications actually conformed to these standards.
“Today we are supposed to have a certificate of energy efficiency issued for every building that is sold or rented, attached to the contract of sale or rent,” Brincat said.
“The longer government justifies this irresponsible behaviour and drags its feet, shows us how we don’t have a government that believes in the need for us to be energy efficient. Today’s administration is breaching EU directives while boasting of its EU and green credentials, with serious consequences to Maltese and Gozitan citizens and taxpayers.”
Brincat said that government could not justify its procrastination over the directive by pointing out the added expenses this would bring on the construction industry.
“We’ve been an EU member state for the past four years and a half and there is no derogation from this law. If this justification is invoked, it would not justify government’s delays or the arguments of those who want things to stay the same in the construction industry.”

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