EP refuses to re-open controversial development rationalisation case

The European Parliament yesterday refused to re-open the case on the controversial rationalisaton process, which saw development boundaries in Malta being extended in 2006.

The latest attempt to re-examine the whole process was made in a petition sent to the EP’s Petitions Committee last year by Edward Mallia on behalf of Friend of the Earth. The petition included 461 signatures.

Prof. Mallia asked the EP to re-open its investigation, claiming “the Maltese government proceeded in a misleading manner” over the issue and that the changes in the Structure Plan “released additional tracts of land for development far beyond those included in the Local Plans approved by Parliament in 2006”.

He called for “urgent action at EU level against this infringement” adding the government had already started enacting the land planning measures needed to develop the tracts of land in the countryside.

The Petitions Committee however refused to re-open the case, arguing the case had been dealt with in detail in a probe that had cleared the government in 2006.

“Following an analysis of all the available information the (European) Commission was able to compile from the Maltese authorities, the Commission could not conclude a breach of the SEA (Strategic Environment Assessment) Directive. Consequently, the Commission decided to close this case in March 2010.

“This issue is completely closed for us and there is no way we will re-start a whole investigation which took three years to conclude and has already yielded no results,” an EP official said after the Committee meeting.

The Petitions Committee last year had already thrown out a similar complaint, lodged by Lucienne Pace from Birżebbuġa, claiming the revision infringed the EU’s SEA Directive.

The Committee had concluded the scheme rationalisation exercise was an integral part of the local plan processes started in 1992 and, therefore, preceded the enactment of the SEA Directive, which would have required wide consultation.

Similarly, the Commission last year closed infringement proceedings it had started in 2007 following complaints by Alternattiva Demokratika and a number of people on the same matter.