Matthew Vella
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil has argued that there is no basis to re-open three petitions to the European Parliament alleging breach of environmental law by the Malta and Environment and Planning Authority over Ramla l-Hamra, because the permit was not authorised by MEPA.
The petitions, made by two Maltese residents and Alternattiva Demokratika secretary-general Victor Galea, were dropped by the EP’s petitions committee after interventions by the European Commission and Busuttil, who told the committee that the permit for the Ramla l-Hamra villa complex had been turned down by MEPA.
The Ramla project was turned down by MEPA’s development control commission (DCC) after a public pathway was discovered running through the property. Subsequently, the developers filed an appeal against the judgement, which will be heard on 28 November.
After the petitions were dropped by the EP committee, the petitioners told Green MEP David Hammerstein that the permit was actually still under appeal.
Last week, on the request of the Green group, the coordinators meeting to prepare the work of the petitions committee decided to re-open the Maltese petition, because the petitioners said the Ramla permit was still subject to appeal.
Simon Busuttil told MaltaToday it was “highly inappropriate” for a committee decision to close a petition to be overturned in this manner.
“I argued that if a petition was closed by the committee then it should only be re-opened by the committee itself and not through the back-door. My intervention was supported by another EPP MEP who insisted that the petition in question remain closed until proper evidence was brought on why it should be re-opened. On this basis the petition remained closed.”
Busuttil said that although the development is still subject to an appeal, this did not change the fact that no development is currently authorised. “And as long as no development is authorised, I see no reason why we should re-open this petition,” Busuttil said. “Moreover, I have already publicly expressed my opposition to this development.”
Busuttil accused the Greens and Alternattiva Demokratika of sending their propaganda “into overdrive” to manipulate the petitions committee on the Ramla l-Hamra issue.
The petitions were dropped after the Commission said it had been informed in September 2007 by the Maltese government that no permit would be awarded for the project – although MEPA did not reject the application until 4 October, 2007.
Speaking in the committee the day the petitions were dropped, Simon Busuttil made no reference to the pending appeal that was filed in December 2007.
“Very briefly, this happens to be a case in which, due to public pressure, the authorities have had to reject an application for development that had caused a great deal of environmental concern and the application in question has been rejected by the national authority.
“Here is a case where, on the basis of public pressure, the authorities do move and when the public is right, that right is given to them.
“That is why I agree with the Commission that there is absolutely no basis for continuing with the petition – precisely because of the pressure created by this petition the application in question will now not proceed,” Busuttil told MEPs.
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