"Good governance is impossible without good strategic environmental assessments," Environment Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said this morning.

He was speaking at a seminar aimed at informing public sector officials and NGOs of how to best implement strategic environmental assessments and the EU's SEA Directive.

An SEA is an environmental report which analyses the likely significant environmental effects a plan or programme is likely to have, and identifies a series of reasonable alternatives to the plan or programme. It does not apply for projects or policies.

Dr de Marco spoke of the SEA's political dimension, explaining how it allowed decision makers to be make informed choices on decisions that would affect people's lives.

"SEAs can prevent costly mistakes by alerting decision makers to potentially unsustainable options at an early stage in the decision making process," Dr de Marco said.

He, however, reminded those present that it was up to policy makers to maximise the benefits of SEAs. "SEAs are only as good as we want them to be," he said.

The chairman of Malta's SEA Focal Point, Kevin Gatt, explained how local legislation had been simplified to simplify the SEA process. A screening document had also been introduced, allowing stakeholders to understand why individual plans or programmes qualified for an SEA, as well as opening the SEA process to wider public consultation.

Louis Meulman from the European Commission's Environment Directorate-General gave an overview of the EU SEA Directive and its implementation across the EU.

He acknowledged a number of difficulties in member state implementation of the directive, saying it was "still in its infancy" and that the Commission had opened infringement proceedings for 23 out of the 27 member states.

Malta, Dr Meulman noted, was one of the four member states which had not faced any such proceedings.