The designate chairman of the Environment and Resources Authority has urged parliament to consider changing the law so that the authority can veto certain development planning applications.
“The government and opposition need to take the initiative to change laws. Are you prepared to give ERA a veto on planning applications? We cannot be a voice in the wilderness. We need the strength of the law behind us,” Vince Cassar said.
“The watchdog needs some teeth to bite because otherwise, we will never reach our aims as a country,” he added.
Cassar was being grilled by the parliamentary Public Appointments Committee before his formal appointment as ERA chairman.
Times of Malta revealed earlier on Wednesday that Cassar had been chosen to succeed chairman Victor Axiak, whose term has ended.
An architect by profession, Cassar, a former permanent secretary, served at the helm of the now-defunct Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2013 and continued to chair the PA’s most important decision-making body until he was replaced last year.
He still holds the role of chairperson of the Planning Authority’s Development Planning Fund Committee.
Axiak, a vocal critic of governmental policies on the environment and land use and former chair of the Church's environment commission, had been appointed to head the ERA in 2016 when it was set up.
Asked about his views on the state of the environment, Cassar lamented that emissions from traffic had grown beyond what was removed with the closure of the Marsa power station.
“If we do not go for more electrification, environmental problems will grow.”
He said he felt that ERA was not communicating its vision enough. While it should speak about the problems the country faced, it should come up with proposed solutions and communicate them effectively, he said.
Asked whether local councils should have a veto too in planning matters, Cassar replied in the negative, saying that although councils had to have a say in the matter, they should not hold a veto.
At the end of the siting, Cassar was unanimously approved as ERA chairman.