No progress on public domain Act due to ‘teething problems’

Lack of progress on the new Public Domain Act is simply down to “teething problems”, Environment Minister José Herrera said in response to criticism that the environmental protection law had been left on paper.

“If there was no political will, we would not have passed the law. I was directly involved in drafting this legislation and I can assure everyone that there was consensus in Cabinet,” Dr Herrera told the Times of Malta.

“However, we do not want to create a law that could stir up economic disruption or create panic among landowners.”

Introduced in 2016, the law is intended to add extra levels of protection to sites of environmental or cultural significance, allowing them to be designated as public domain and obliging the government to preserve them for future generations. However, the first list of sites nominated for public domain status in 2017 remains on the drawing board, and the legal deadline for fresh nominations the following year passed without the process ever beginning.

Stakeholders, including NGOs who nominated the sites and Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi, who piloted the law, have complained that implementation has stalled and that the government appears to...