EU Commission investigating Malta's compliance with SAC directive

The European Commission will be investigating whether the Maltese government is complying with the Special Areas of Conservation directive, Alternattiva Demokratika said.

It said in a statement that although a permit was given for an open air disco to be held at Mistra on land protected by the EU Habitats Directive belonging to PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando during the EP election campaign, the MEPA board had withdrawn an outline permit for a permanent open-air disco on the same site a year ago.

AD said it had asked MEPA to explain why it has changed its mind within the short space of a few months when nothing else had changed.

AD said that when the government decided to designate a number of areas as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) it accepted that it had to follow the relative EU rules.

These included that the activities permitted in these areas had to be compatible with the conservation objectives of the protected sites.

The government also had to draw up management plans for the sites to establish priorities for the use of the sites in line with the directive. But these plans were not yet drafted giving Mepa a free hand to decide on each case separately.

AD’s spokesman for sustainable development and local government Carmel Cacopardo had written to Commissioner Stavros Dimas to request an investigation into Malta’s mismanagement of SACs.

The Commissioner has now told AD that the Directorate-General of the Environment would be investigating and verifying whether the Maltese government was complying with the SAC directive.

“AD believes that it is in our own interest and the interests of future generations that such areas are managed correctly. Our common heritage deserves protection,” it said.