MEPA demerger bills pass parliamentary vote

Three bills to demerge the Malta Environment and Planning Authority into two separate authorities have passed a parliamentary vote, with all government MPs present voting in favour of them and all Opposition MPs voting against.

The controversial bills will now be discussed and potentially tweaked during a parliamentary committee when Parliament reconvenes from its summer recess that commences tomorrow. 

The Opposition had refused to debate the demerger in the parliamentary debate, arguing that the government hadn’t given civil society enough time to analyze the three wordy documents before the Bills’ second reading and that they should only debate after listening to their views.

A group of environment NGOs on Saturday criticised the “incorrect and misleading” publicity issued by government on the MEPA demerger and insisted that environmental and planning policies and decisions should be left to technical experts.

“In a bid to justify the new MEPA laws which increase politicians’ stranglehold on planning and environment, government publicity is giving incorrect and misleading messages,” the NGOs said.

They warned that the demerger weakens the protection of environment, with the new Environment Authority being reduced to “just another government entity to be consulted at whim.