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8 News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2013 No legal obligation to cha European Commission confirms that any changes to Malta's energy policy will have to be submitted to widespread public consultation and environmental assessments, but it is ultimately up to government to revise the policy or not JAMES DEBONO OFFICIAL sources in the European Commission confirmed that the government can bypass a legal obligation to undertake public consultation and environmental assessments on changes to Malta's energy policy by simply not embarking on its modification. The legal obligation to conduct public consultation and assess the impacts of policy revision was made mandatory by the EU directive on Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA). In September MaltaToday revealed that the government had excluded an immediate revision of Malta's Energy Policy while promising to abide by the SEA directive in any future review of the energy policy. The EC's reply indicates that the government's course of action is not in breach of EU directives, even if it effectively means evading the requirements of the directive – by not changing its energy policy, despite its push for gas. This is because according to the EC, the government cannot change Malta's energy policy without embarking on a time-consuming SEA, which would probably derail its goal to complete the project by March 2015. But the government can bypass this binding legal requirement by keeping the outdated energy policy in place, only to revise it at a later stage after the completion of the new gas infrastructure. According to official sources in the European Commission, the decision on whether to change its energy policy is always the prerogative of a national government. "It is up to the Maltese government to see whether there is a need for revising the approved energy policy in view of these new energy infrastructure projects," but "any formal revision of Malta's energy policy has to comply with the requirements of the SEA Directive," official EU commission sources told MaltaToday. This means that the new government's gas-fired energy infrastructure will be developed in a policy vacuum, with the government finding a loophole to evade an SEA on Delimara power station its wider energy plans. No changes without an SEA Malta's Energy Policy was approved by the previous government in December 2012, on the eve of the electoral campaign and after the completion of an SEA, which had taken a full two years to complete, following the presentation of a draft policy in 2009. The approved plan foresaw that by 2014, 70% of Malta's energy demand would be fed by a Malta-Sicily interconnector, pushing down domestic fossil-fuel consumption to just 30%. On the other hand, the present government's unofficial plan, presented before the general election, foresees that only 20% of Malta's demand will be fed by the interconnector, which will cost Maltese taxpayers €182 million. Moreover, European Commission sources made it clear to MaltaToday that any changes to Malta's energy policy have to comply with the requirements of the SEA directive. In the case of substantial changes as envisaged in Labour's energy blueprint, the directive requires full public consultation and studies on the wider environmental impact of the different options considered in the formulation of the new energy policy: "Any formal revision of Malta's energy policy has to comply with the requirements of the SEA Directive." While in the case of minor changes a "screening" of the existing policy can be sufficient, "a full SEA" could be needed "if the changes are substantial", official sources in the commission told MaltaToday. A Strategic Environment Assessment is a study which assesses the full environmental impacts of any formal plan which has a wider environmental impact. This applies to policies in strategic sectors like land use and energy. Unlike an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a requirement for the approval of the new gas power station, an SEA will not deal The new government's gas-fired energy infrastructure will be developed in a policy vacuum, with the government finding a loophole to evade a Strategic Impact Assessment on its wider energy plans specifically with the impact of one particular project, but will assess possible alternatives, like the provision of energy through a gas pipeline instead of importing gas from tankers. Moreover, in the EIA recently submitted to MEPA, the coordinators refer to the "government policy decision" to bypass the need for studies on alternatives to the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal, like a gas pipeline. But this "policy decision" itself has never been subjected to any scrutiny or public consultation which would only be possible through an SEA. In fact no formal policy decision, other than that outlined in the PL's electoral manifesto, has ever been presented to the public.

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