The language of EIA hearings

Published on the Malta Independent on Sunday 27th June, 2010 by Peter Gingell.

I refer to a letter entitled “Mepa must apologise” (TMIS, 20 June), wherein Angelo Xerri blames the Authority for taking the “advice of a handful of people” and not allowing the EIA public consultation meeting to be carried out in English, with the consequence that non-Maltese speaking people living in the Qala area were ignored.

While Mepa apologises for any inconvenience caused by this situation, it wishes to point out that the law regulating EIAs explicitly states that an EIA public hearing meeting should be held in the Maltese language. The fact that members of the public present for the EIA meeting objected to the use of the English language constrained the Mepa official chairing the meeting to abide by the law and effectively only allow the Maltese language, throughout the entire meeting, to be used by those present.

The Authority would also like to put on record that apart from the public meeting held in Qala, the public also had the opportunity, between 20 April and 11 June, to submit, in writing, any comments they wished to make pertaining to the EIA, in either English or Maltese. All representations received by Mepa were acknowledged and not one was ignored.