Ministry denies EU approval

The Transport Ministry said yesterday the EU had not approved plans to change the road in Għadira in 2005 after accepting an environment impact assessment.

Reacting to an article that appeared in The Times on Tuesday, the ministry also denied trying to suppress any report from being published.

The project proposed in 2005, it said, was abandoned following BirdLife's criticism that it would damage the environment.

The uproar over the Għadira road was sparked off by an announcement by the ministry about new plans that have been heavily criticised by seven environmental non-governmental organisations, including BirdLife, because a proposed new road will cut through EU-protected areas and may damage Malta's only nature reserve.

The NGOs have been calling on the ministry to carry out the necessary environmental studies and to substantiate its claims that the removal of the present road will expand the sandy beach.

However, the ministry insisted that an EIA will only be done under terms of reference given by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority once an application for the road's construction was made.

It denied the reports that an application had ever been submitted for the 2005 project and said no EIA was ever carried out. "No EIA has been conducted on the option to upgrade the existing Għadira road. Initial environmental impact appraisals - a far cry from an EIA - were made in 2005 and placed on the Malta Transport Authority's website for public consumption, where they have been since and still are," the ministry said.

"Whichever route is ultimately chosen, a specific major project application would have to be made to the Commission for approval of the funding and a specific planning application would have to be made to Mepa for approval of the development. Finally, an EIA would have to be made under terms of reference drawn up by Mepa itself."