German MP’s meet senior politicians

Finance Minister John Dalli said that Malta faces a financial burden to bring its environment in order but admitted that an amount of cost sharing with the consumer would have to be done.

Mr Dalli was answering questions put to him by the members of the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag who are in Malta on a familiarisation visit.

Yesterday the German delegation paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of the House of Representatives,Anton Tabone, Finance Minister John Dalli and Economic Services Minster Josef Bonnici. They also paid a visit to the President of the Republic, Profs Guido DeMarco at the Palace, Valletta.

The delegation consists of Members of the German Parliament representing the main political parties. The Finance Committee of the Bundestag, led by Mr Detlev Von Larcher, was accompanied by the German Ambassador Mr Georg Merten.

The Speaker, Anton Tabone thanked the delegation for the interest shown in Malta and elaborated on the functions of the House of Representatives and its Standing Committees. Furthermore Mr Speaker replied to questions put to him by members of the delegation.

The German MP’s expressed satisfaction for having had the opportunity of meeting a good cross-section of relevant entities that enabled them to enrich their knowledge about Malta and to form independent opinions.

The Speaker of the House, Anton Tabone augured that through similar programmes parliamentary relations between Malta and Germany will continue to be enhanced.

During the meeting with Mr Dalli the German visitors asked a number of questions related to Malta’s social security structure, the manufacturing sector and the environment in particular.

The German parliamentary delegation was interested to know the state of Malta’s environment and the strategy that government is going to adopt to tackle the problems. Mr Dalli said that government was in the process of implementing a waste management plan.