Updated | PN warns MEPA demerger will relegate environment to 'external consultee'

A planned demerger of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority will relegate the environment to an "external consultee", the Nationalist Party has warned.

Opposition MP Ryan Callus told a press conference that MEPA's environment directorate currently enjoys a seat on the MEPA board where it is granted an automatic voice on discussions of projects, such as the scheduling of sites, and on possible ODZ extensions.

Through the demerger, policy decisions will be shifted from the MEPA board to a consultative council, whose members will all be appointed by the government. He warned that the council would not even be obliged to consult the new environment authority on every policy debate.

Three bills were published in Parliament last week through which the environmental and planning arms of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority will be separated.

The government this afternoon announced it was publishing the draft bills for the MEPA demerger online after they were published in Friday’s government gazette. The draft laws are available on the Environment Ministry’s website and the MEPA website.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has insisted that this demerger will give the environment a "stronger authority than it has ever had".

However, Callus and shadow environment minister Marthese Portelli will present a letter to Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, as chairperson of parliament's planning and environment committee, asking her to request that the Bills be discussed within the committee prior to their discussion in the House.

"This way, environmental NGOs and other stakeholders will be able to discuss it," Portelli said. "However, the government wants them done and dusted before Parliament breaks for recess, despite only presenting them last week."

"These Bills will completely change Malta's planning landscape, but the government wants to steamroll over parliament without giving room for consultation."

Government insists MEPA demerger will strenghen environment 

In a response, the government said that  it had already formally asked the environment committee to discuss the Bill, upon the request of eNGOs, hours before the PN held their press conference.

However, they insisted that the MEPA demerger would strengthen the environmental lobby, as the new autonomous environment board would be able to take decisions relating to the environment.

They added that the new Environment Authority will be granted a seat on the executive council of the new Planning Authority, so as to ensure that planning decisions are taken with the environment in mind. If the Environment Authority disagrees with a planning permit granted by the Planning Authority, it could choose to appeal the decision before an independent board.