Friends of the Earth (Malta) director Martin Galea De Giovanni will be the representative of the environment NGOs on the board of the Environment Resources Authority, after being nominated by a number of activist groups.
He replaces Alan Deidun, who resigned that position earlier this year. At the time of his resignation, Deidun had said ERA is toothless and the PA is its big brother.
Since joining FoE in 2000, Galea De Giovanni has been responsible for issues relating to various environmental topics with a main focus on agriculture, biodiversity, waste and climate justice. He also represents FoE at international meetings and serves as an executive board member at Friends of the Earth Europe in Brussels. He holds an M.Sc in Environmental Management and Planning from the University of Malta.
The groups thanked outgoing representative Deidun and praised his sterling service on the ERA board right up to his resignation.
The groups have also reiterated their call for ERA’s board meetings to be open to the public, noting that their request has already been relayed twice to Environmental Minister Aaron Farrugia, with no reply has been forthcoming.
“In the interests of transparency and integrity, the public should be able to follow and make representations during ERA board meetings, where important decisions affecting the environment and everyone’s quality of life are taken. The current system makes it impossible for residents to be represented. We also believe that the votes of every board member should be minuted and made public, in line with the principle of responsibility,” they said.
The groups are also asking for changes to PA and ERA regulations so as to be able to nominate a substitute for Galea De Giovanni as well as the NGO representative on the Planning Board.
“There have already been two key Planning Authority hearings where the NGOs’ representative was forced to recuse herself for having previously declared her vote - by simply carrying out her duty and voting in an earlier hearing on the same case. This led to an unjust situation where the NGOs were robbed of their vote and voice on the PA board, and by extension, robbed thousands of residents and objectors of their representation,” they observed.