Government evasive on calls for impact studies on land reclamation

Any plan setting the framework for land reclamation projects on the Maltese coastline would have to be assessed through a Strategic Environmental Assessment - which is an EU requirement on any plan which has an impact on the environment.

But the government is being evasive on whether it intends to issue a public document outlining the framework for land reclamation projects before a call for expression of interest is issued. 

It was Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in his budget speech who had announced the government's intention to issue a call for expression of interest for land reclamation proposals, an idea first touted by his predecessor Lawrence Gonzi in 2005 but which was aborted after it was deemed unfeasible in a report commissioned by MEPA in 2007.

So far the only commitment by the present government is that the expression of interest for land reclamation projects will be called after "all necessary evaluations between Lands Department, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Transport Malta and the Maritime Authority have been carried out". This was the only reply given by the Ministry for Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate change and the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Simplification when asked whether the government's land reclamation plans will be assessed in a Strategic Environment Assessment.

An SEA is an environmental report which analyses the likely significant environmental effects a plan or programme is likely to have. 

It would also analyse the wider impacts of land reclamation on land use in Malta. An SEA is also meant to identify reasonable alternatives to the proposed plan or programme. But the directive only applies to formal plans and not to generic policies or individual projects.

The government spokesperson did not reply to a specific question on whether an SEA will be conducted on the government's land reclamation plans. Neither did it reply to question on whether it would exclude reclamation for real estate purposes and whether it would exclude sites which include EU protected habitats.

An SEA would ensure that the environmental impacts of land reclamation are assessed before any particular proposal is made by the private sector.

But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has already stated that the government would not identify a particular site for this development and that it would be up to the private sector to come up with a concrete proposal. 

Any proposal would still have to pass through the planning process which would require an Environment Impact Assessment but this would be carried out after the selection of the bidder.

In fact the government is committed that "every proposal that will be presented will be scanned and evaluated for any impacts in holistic way".

According to EU law, an SEA is mandatory for plans or programmes which are prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste, water management, telecommunications, tourism, town and country planning or land use and which "set the framework for future development consent of projects listed in the EIA Directive".

Land reclamation is listed among the projects listed in the EIA directive as requiring an EIA if it is "likely to have significant effects on the environment".

Land reclamation could also have an impact on sites protected by the EU habitats directive, which automatically require an EIA. This is because most of the Maltese coastline includes EU protected posidonia meadows.

An SEA does not do away with the need to conduct an EIA on a particular development application but is conducted to assess the holistic impact of a plan setting the framework for such developments.

The directive ensures that all environmental consequences of certain plans and programmes are identified and assessed during their preparation and before their adoption.

Alternattiva Demokratika has already called on the government to ensure wider public consultation on its plans, by submitting the proposal to a detailed analysis as provided by the EU's Strategic Environment Assessment Directive.

But the government has so far not published a plan setting the parameters for land reclamation and has hinted that it would simply issue a call for expression of interest before assessing the environmental impacts of the project.

History repeating itself?

The absence of a formal plan could exempt the government from the land reclamation idea from an SEA.

Back in 2005 the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment argued that the plan to develop Xaghra l-Hamra and other areas into golf courses did not fall under the scope of the SEA Directive "since there is no plan or programme, as defined in the directive, relating to the development of golf courses".

This prompted an inconclusive EU investigation promoted by an interrogation in the EU parliament by Joseph Muscat in his role as MEP. Muscat had raised a complaint on this issue after Environment Commission Stavros Dimas had invited him to lodge a formal complaint to enable the Commission to investigate further on whether the Maltese government's policy to develop golf courses should have been subjected to an environmental impact assessment as required by the EU's SEA Directive. In his complaint, Muscat pointed out that the plan to develop three golf courses falls under the scope of the directive because this plan is clearly related to tourism and to land use.

In an earlier reply to Muscat's questions, the Commission had stated that the directive only applied to plans and programmes and not to individual projects.

But Muscat followed up the reply by calling on the Commission to state whether a plan to develop a number of land-consuming golf courses in a country where land is so limited, should be subject to the evaluation required by the directive. The golf course proposal was dropped a few months before the 2008 general election.