The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) needs to be given more powers, including veto rights on any project, the Partit Demokratiku is insisting.

In a statement on Thursday, the PD said that the decision by the ERA to not allow any permits for the uprooting of trees to be issued until the appeal is decided is to be commended.

"Partit Demokratiku believes that one of Malta's greatest mistakes remains that ERA was created with far less power than the Planning Authority. That they are not on equal footing proves the greatest liability to the environment to this day.

"The party is therefore, once again, calling on the government to provide the ERA with further powers, including veto rights on any project. As it stands, the ERA can simply be ignored," the party said. 

Iterating that it continues to oppose the Central Link Project in its "current form", PD said it cannot help but note that the ERA demanded 1,649 trees be planted to make up for those currently set for the chop.

Nonetheless, their demands have been ignored in favour of less than half that number (766 trees) to be planted as part of the project, it said.

"It is evident that the ERA, whose employees strive to do what they can for Malta's environment, lacks the authority and the resources it needs to do its job. Let us support positive work and positive outcomes, rather than ignore and hinder.

"Minister Ian Borg's latest tree planting promise remains a casual attempt to distract the general public using his party propaganda machine, funded by taxpayer money," PD MP Godfrey Farrugia said.