Environment Minister Mario de Marco this evening questioned whether Labour leader Joseph Muscat had an "ulterior motive" for removing environmental protection from the planning authority's remit.

Dr de Marco said Dr Muscat's proposals outlined today effectively reduce environment protection to one vote out of 15.

While saying that several of Labour's proposals had already been proposed by the PN or carried out by the Government, Dr de Marco criticised the decision to create separate authorities for planning and environment.

Dr de Marco noted that this idea was considered and discarded by the Today Public Policy Institute's think-tank in 2008.

He pointed out that countries which have two separate authorities had local or regional authorities for issuing permits which included environmental directorates.

Referring to recent statements by Dr Muscat on land reclamation and rural tourism, Dr de Marco questioned whether there was an ulterior motive behind Labour's plans. Later he also referred to Labour's plans to build another power station in two years.

"Why this hurry to remove environmental protection from Mepa's remit? How will this create more efficiency?"

Dr de Marco was also skeptical about Dr Muscat's claim that this proposal was suggested by both environmental NGOs and developers.

"Is he doing this to look good with environmentalists or developers? Because you cannot keep both happy," he said, later clarifying that Mepa, like a court of law, could rarely please both sides since their interests were often so conflicting.

Dr de Marco also praised the Mepa reform which he spearheaded and said 99 per cent of permits were now issued within the timeframes stipulated. Before the reform it took on average 222 days for a decision to be taken by Mepa whereas the current average has been lowered to 75 days.

He said the reform was an ongoing process but had already reaped positive results in boosting efficiency, accountability, consistency and enforcement.