eNGO proposals included in final draft of strategic environment plan

The final draft of the government’s new general guide for planning decisions will include last-minute amendments proposed by environmental NGOs.

Parliament’s environment, planning and development committee green-lighted the amended version of the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) with all three government MPs voting in favour of it and both Opposition MPs abstaining.

Shadow environment minister Marthese Portelli told MaltaToday that the Opposition had reservations over the “vague terminology” in the draft and were hoping to receive more details in a future plenary session.

The SPED will serve as the government’s general guide for planning decisions, and will replace the Structure Plan approved in 1992. The document notably foresees the development of an airstrip, a cruise liner terminal and a yacht marina in Gozo. 

The original draft was amended after Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, the committee’s chairperson, had asked environmental NGOs Din l-Art Helwa and Friends of the Earth to put forward their recommendations.

Farrugia explained that she wanted to reach a resolution that is “developed together with civil society” to ensure environmental safeguards.

However, this decision was criticised by her fellow Labour MP Deborah Schembri who had argued that the NGOs had their chance to propose amendments during the document’s original consultation period and that allowing them to propose further amendments would not give “equality of arms to other people who might be in opposition to what is being proposed”.

However, Farrugia, after listening to what the NGOs had to say, said that the original consultation had been “a fake one”. The NGOs had insisted that almost none of their recommendations had been included in the SPED. Describing the public consultation as “lip service”, the NGOs said there was no way of knowing which of their recommendations would have been included in the actual document. Farrugia then invited them to the committee and showed them the document to allow them to propose recommendations before it was amended by MPs.

Farrugia accused Schembri of demeaning democracy, firing words such as “absolute dictatorship” and “they want to ignore civil society”.