Michael Farrugia today said that a wide public consultation was held on the Mepa split proposal in March 2014, during which it was widely explained what the demerger is all about.

Dr Farrugia, who was Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Mepa before he was made Family Minister, said that the idea behind the proposed bills dividing planning from environment was also explained in detail for several months.

As things stand, the environment and planning sections fall under one authority – Mepa - but the government is proposing that the two sections are separated into two entities.

Dr Farrugia was giving comments to this newsroom after environment NGOs stated that they were not given enough time to study the government’s proposals on the demerger.

Dr Farrugia said the environmental NGOs were always against the demerger but “we always emphasised that the environment sector will be stronger than ever because today environmentalists who sit on the MEPA board cannot appeal the authority’s decision. Once the split takes place, the environment authority would be able to appeal decisions made by the planning authority.

“In the event the environment authority feels aggrieved by the planning authority’s decision, it will have the right and will be obliged to appeal such a decision before the environment and planning review tribunal.

“Not only, if the appeal is turned down, the environment authority would have the opportunity to resort to other legal measures by presenting its case in a court of law against the planning authority.”