The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) is to have its own enforcement unit, removing its reliance on other authorities, Environment Minister Jose' Herrera told Parliament on Wednesday.

The minister said that he recognised that law enforcement had traditionally been a problem in the Maltese Islands, and that it continued to be an issue.

Reacting to claims that the recently-formed ERA “had no teeth,” the minister said that in order to ensure that the Authority had as much power as possible to resist illegalities, he had given instructions for an Enforcement Directorate to be established within it.

This would free the ERA of its dependence on other entities to carry out its enforcement orders. Hopefully, he said, he would soon be in a position to announce further details.

Shadow minister Jason Azzopardi said that, whilst he did not question the minister’s good intentions, the ERA “not only has no bite, it has no bark, nor even a whimper.”

Two years after its setting up, the country was now in a position to see that the Authority had no clout on the Planning Authority Board and was being “emarginated.”

He called for the Authority to be given a veto in certain cases, or at least for it to be better represented on the PA Board.