Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party (AD) has again warned government over its repeated persistence in ignoring European environmental law against every advice.

“Following a refusal to abide by EU law and carry out the required strategic environmental assessment (SEA) on proposed developments outside building boundaries which were rushed through Parliament last month, a carbon copy situation is now arising with respect to the golf course planned in North West Malta,” said Dr Harry Vassallo, Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party.

The SEA Directive 2001/42/EC, on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes, applies to the proposal to have more golf courses in Malta and Gozo. The scheme to plant a golf course on garigue habitat at Xaghra il-Hamra falls within this plan and is therefore subject to an SEA within the wider framework.

“The surprise announcement came out of the blue last summer as the project suddenly found the backing of the Prime Minister even though no type of assessment whatsoever at all had been carried out on it at the time,” continued Dr Vassallo.

AD Environment and Rural Affairs Spokesperson Mark Causon said: “One of the main differences between the two types of assessment is that an SEA looks at maintaining a chosen level of environmental quality while an EIA only concentrates on mitigating impacts in a number of ways or trying to minimise them.

“Another difference between them is that an EIA considers only a limited number of feasible alternatives while an SEA offers a much broader range of potential alternatives.”