[WATCH] Jose Herrera says environment agency nearly ready to launch, a year after announcement

The role of the new Ambjent Malta agency has "expanded" since it was first announced last year, Environment Minister Jose Herrera said. 

The agency, which the minister said will be launched just before summer this year, will be tasked with the "maintenance and preservation of the natural capital of the country," he said. 

Ambjent Malta is in the "final stages" of being launched, Herrera said, as the Director-General and the board of governors is set to be "chosen in the coming days." 

"It wasn't easy" to set up the agency, the minister admitted but reiterated that he hopes the agency would become a reality. "I think that we will be in a position to launch before the summer," he said. 

Herrera had initially announced the setting up of the agency in parliament last summer, when he had said he was determined to have a central agency for environmental protection, but had since failed to mention any progress until he was asked by this newspaper today.