Just a week into her new role as Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri speaks to Kurt Sansone about the planning authority, pressures politicians face, the Gaffarena scandal and embryo freezing. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has often been considered a poisoned chalice by past ministers. If you are pro-environment the likeliness is you will face flak from constituents because of Mepa's rigidity; if you relax on development, you will have to contend with criticism from environmentalists. How can you achieve this balance? The secret is finding the right balance. The Mepa demerger will see the environment aspect being strengthened. The environment, as part of the structures of Mepa, was shackled because it could not even appeal a board decision. By hiving off the environmental aspect and creating a separate authority, any planning decision could be challenged. This is good but it does not mean that the planning side – my side – should drop all environmental considerations. But environmentalists have to understand that progress cannot be stalled. Environmentalists are not so convinced of the demerger, which even led to Marlene Farrugia resigning from the...
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