Parliamentary environment committee chairman responds to concerns raised by environmentalists

The chairman of the Parliamentary Environment and Development Planning committee, Alex Muscat, has responded to certain concerns raised by environmentalists.

Prominent environmentalist Claire Bonello had a few days ago slammed the way the Parliamentary Environment Committee is being run, arguing that the environment lobby “cannot understand why discussions to increase development zones in ODZ and agricultural land leapfrog over other discussions to preserve some measure of ODZ land.” This was backed by others like Arnold Cassola and Michael Briguglio.

One of the points made by Bonello in her letter to the Chairman was that she found it extremely irregular to appoint a sitting of the Standing Committee to discuss the Partial Review of the Ta’ Qali Action Plan, well before the time for public consultation is closed, adding that the committee will not have the full picture by that time.

In his response, Muscat said: “In my humble opinion, the Standing Committee report forms part of the public consultation and is not separate and distinct from such procedure. The law makes it clear that it is the Planning Authority that is obliged by law to receive public comments and not the Standing Committee. The purpose of the Standing Committee is to discuss any strategy, plan or policy referred to it and report back to the Executive Council, House of Representatives and Minister.”

Bonello had highlighted that, “the proposed change to the plan effectively means the urbanisation of a green area and intensification of use - another incremental step in the urbanization of the ODZ and agricultural land leading from Attard to the bottom of Saqqajja Hill.”

Muscat said that this was not the case. “Kindly note that contrary to your assertion, this partial review does not include any green areas nor agricultural land.”

He directed the environmentalist to take note of the policy-making procedure in terms of the Development Planning Act.

“The Objectives of the Policy are issued for public consultation for a period of not less than 3 weeks, during which public and all organisations are free to file their submissions. Upon having public and organisations comments at hand, the Planning directorate drafts the policy according to the objectives and public and organisations submissions. The drafted policy together with the public and organisations comments on the objectives, is referred to the Executive Council for its approval or otherwise. When the drafted policy is approved by the Executive Council, the Policy document including public and organisations representations received on the objectives are issued for public consultation for a period of not less than 6 weeks. The drafted Policy document is referred to the Standing Committee to draw up a report during the consultation period. If following the public consultation and the Standing Committee report, the Executive Council does not make changes to the drafted policy document, it shall adopt it and refer it to the Minister.

“If following the public consultation and the Standing Committee report, the Executive Council make changes to this draft, the Executive Council shall publish the amendments in the revised draft for another public consultation of not less than 6 weeks and refer the same amendments to the Standing Committee to prepare a new report if deemed necessary, such report is then referred to the Executive Council. The Executive Council shall then refer its final draft of policy to the Minister together with all representations, reports and other documentation.

“When Minister agrees with final draft, he shall refer it to the Standing Committee for its effective scrutiny and report to the House and Minister within one month.”

If the Minister does not make further changes, he then provides his final approval, Muscat said.

As regards to the remit of the Development Planning and Environment Committee, he attached a ruling given by the Speaker on the 5th February, which states how the Committee should operate. That ruling highlights that a motion from an MP must be made and approved by Parliament in order to give additional powers to start discussions which go beyond its remit.