4 July 2007 Rating 3% No Comment  

AD recently met with representatives of the various environmental NGOs, to discuss their policy on MEPA reform. ?Alternattiva Demokratika will take ultimate responsibility for its reform proposal but the participation of NGOs, professional bodies and all stakeholders is vitally important,? AD Chairperson Dr Vassallo, said. The AD Draft Policy on MEPA reform envisages a separation of the environment protection and development control and planning, both subject to oversight by a parliamentary select committee. Ministerial interference is structurally eliminated. Dr Vassallo said that every effort should be made to remove ministerial interference and to increase the participation of civil society in decision making. ?At the heart of the issue lies the dependence of political parties on financing by the construction industry? Dr Vassallo. ?The perversion of the planning and development control process because of this simple fact has cost the country many millions of liri and will continue to cost ever more  in future because of the wholly unsustainable development which has taken place and continues to take place against MEPA?s stated rules and the advice of its experts.? ?We can no longer continue to ignore the challenge which this deliberate perversion of the system poses to the survival of our natural heritage, to the persistence of our cultural heritage and to our ability to compete effectively as an EU member state?, Dr Vassallo maintained. Instead of optimising our chances of success we have in place a system which ensures constant losses, an eternal erosion of our potential when in fact it was intended originally to avoid precisely this. Dr Vassallo added that no paper reform alone can secure benefits which a properly functioning planning and environment protection agency or agencies can provide. ?We also need to involve persons who share our vision and are willing to make the system work ?