Front Harsien ODZ condemned "the absolutist way" through which the government is pushing through three new laws regulating planning and environmental protection without adequate consultation.
Such consultation, it said, was required by the Aarhus convention of which Malta is a signatory.
The front said it considered the 24 hour notice given to NGOs to confirm their participation in a two-hour discussion on the three laws as "an insult to civil society".
“The environment bill is 76 pages long with 86 clauses, the new planning bill is 98 pages long with 105 clauses and the bill on the new environment and planning tribunal is 50 pages long with 55 clauses. It is impossible to expect civil society to be in a position of reading through these documents in a couple of days.”
Front Harsien ODZ called on the government to postpone discussion on all three laws to after the summer recess and to initiate a proper consultation process on the proposed laws which contained a number of controversial proposals which merited a full public consultation exercise lasting a number of months not a couple hours.
It said it would be taking part in today’s meeting of parliament’s committee for planning and the environment to voice its concern on the absolutist way the government was weakening the country’s environmental legislation by introducing lax laws by stealth to the detriment of the common good.
Mepa demerger rendering Environment Directorate 'ineffectual' - FAA
In a separate statement, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar said the last-minute invitation to consult on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority demerger was roundly condemned as a cynical, lip-service pretence of public consultation.
The 24-hour notice to study and comment on some 250 legal clauses did not even meet the EU minimum requirements which Malta waslegally obliged to follow, it said.
FAA said it had always maintained that any changes at Mepa could only be considered if they strengthened the position of the Environment Directorate, which had been starved of staff, rendering it ineffectual and subservient to the Planning Directorate.
Even without an in-depth study, it was clearly apparent that the proposed demerger did the opposite, cutting the proposed Environment Authority out of the equation, and reducing it to just another entity to be consulted at the whim of the Planning Authority.
Furthermore, the proposed demerger maintained the political stranglehold on Malta’s planning and environment: “The Executive Council may with the approval of the Minister appoint advisory boards and committees to assist it in the performance of its functions under this or any other law. The functions of the said boards and committees shall be prescribed by the Executive Council with the approval of the Minister.”
Control of Malta’s environment by politicians hiding behind the screen of Mepa had undermined Malta’s landscapes, heritage and quality of life for the last decades.
The Zonqor case was the most recent example , leading to the NGOs’ call for the resignation of the Mepa CEO. While the appointment of officials remained in the hands of any minister, no real progress would be made, FAA said.
It said that the feeble attempt to involve NGOs in the demerger draft was a hollow gesture which reflected on government’s lack of respect for civil society.
No amount of restructuring of Mepa would help until there was real political commitment to allow the genuine experts to regulate without political interference, in the interests of the Maltese public and future generations.