Ds eclaration posals

allow a public consultation on proposals made by individuals against the letter of the law through which the legislator excluded individual persons from the proposals process.”

The PA’s unequivocal rejection of proposals from private individuals is best expressed in its statement that “The Executive Council would be acting illegally if it were to issue [Ciantar’s] proposal for public consultation because [he] does not qualify within the parameters of the law as a person who may, in the first place, submit a proposal.”

Private citizens’ proposals may remain an issue of interpretation.

It has to be stated however, that although the law mentions only proposals by the Lands Minister, MPs and NGOs, it does not state that “only” those sources can make proposals, and it also never expressly excludes individuals from the proposals process.

There remains a doubt about the width of the interpretation of the law by the PA. In his request to the PA in February, Ciantar argued that proposals by private citizens could only be excluded if the law as written was interpreted narrowly. It appears that, as usual, it is safer to leave the interpretation to a court of law.

Counter-protest signed by former Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Planning and Lands

The PA’s counter-protest is signed by Dr Deborah Schembri, who served as Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Lands from 21 January 2016 to 3 June 2017. Effectively, she was responsible for the PA and its Executive Council and was also Lands Minister at the time that the public domain law was enacted in the first half of 2016.