The European Commission will be investigating and verifying whether the government is complying with the Special Area of Conservation directive, Alternattiva Demokratika said yesterday.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told AD in a letter that he had instructed the Nature and Biodiversity Unit in the Environment Directorate-General to verify compliance of activities on the sites.

AD spokesman for sustainable development Carmel Cacopardo had written to Mr Dimas requesting him to investigate Malta's "mismanagement" of SACs including Mistra and Buskett, which he said breached the obligations defined in the EU Habitats Directive.

Last May, AD held a press conference at Mistra after a Malta Environment and Planning Authority permit was issued for an open-air disco during the EP campaign on land belonging to Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. The area is protected in terms of the Habitats Directive of the EU (Special Area of Conservation).

In June 2008, the Mepa board had withdrawn an outline permit for a permanent open-air disco on the site in view of the fact that the proposed activities were not compatible with the same EU Habitats Directive.

AD had asked Mepa to explain why it has changed its mind within the space of a few months when no policies had been changed.

When the government decided to designate a number of areas as SACs, it accepted it had to follow the relative EU rules, AD said.

These included that the activities permitted in these SACs had to be compatible with the conservation objectives of the protected sites.

The government also had to draw up management plans for the sites in order to establish the priorities for the use of the sites in such a way that the conservation objectives of the EU Habitats Directive are achieved.

These management plans have not been drafted to date with the result that Mepa has effectively given itself a free hand to decide on each case separately without necessarily keeping in view the objectives of the EU Habitats Directive, AD said.