The Environment and Resources Authority should be able to block ODZ development applications, shadow minister for the environment Jason Azzopardi argued on Wednesday.

Speaking during a meeting of the parliamentary Environment Committee, the PN MP referred to an Environment Ombudsman opinion saying applications for development in ODZ that touch the rural and marine environment should be referred to and decided by the ERA.

Reading from the Ombudsman report, Dr Azzopardi quoted: "In fact, following MEPA’s demerger, my predecessor proposed ERA should be given veto power in some applications. Experience shows that we should go further and that applications for development in ODZ that touch the rural and marine environment should be referred to and decided by ERA".

This would give the Environment Authority the power to take decisions over matters that coincide with its mission to protect the environment, he added.

Read: ODZ sprawl will continue unless laws are changed, says Environment Commissioner

The ERA should only be consulting the Planning Authority on national matters, and not the other way around, the Ombudsman report, issued from the office of the Environmental Commissioner said.

Dr Azzopardi also noted the Ombudsman reaction that the ERA had a “secondary role”, acting as a consultee rather than a decision-making body on development applications.

ERA chairman Victor Axiak said he did not "necessarily agree" with the argument, but that a clear modus operandi on taking decisions for development projects affecting the environment needed to be found.

Environment Minister Jose Herrera also noted that the ERA was autonomous. 

"I believe eventually, that when it comes to natural territory, the ERA should have been given more power and I am not excluding formal recommendations in this sense," Dr Herrera said.

The Ombudsman report was issued in reaction to the State of the Environment report completed by ERA and presented to the committee.

The report, which is over 400 pages long, offers a snapshot of the environmental situation between 2009 and 2015. The report looks at five  sectors, namely the driving forces affecting the environment; the natural capital; use of resources; climate change and the quality of the environment and health.

It also studies different areas of the environment, including water, waste, air and greenhouse gases. 

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