Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/737583
5 not increase over current levels. According to the EIA the com- mitment under the Gothen- burg protocol - which regulates EU emissions targets - can be reached under the assumption that the electricity demand by 2020 "does not exceed current levels" and that this can be met using the interconnector and the two gas-fired units at De- limara, with the diesel-fired units serving only as emergency backup. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2016 News land reclamation in Posidonia meadows. Now it turns out that land rec- lamation was already proposed to government just months after the election of the new Labour govern- ment. Moreover in November 2013 an appeal's tribunal appointed by the new administration reversed a 2012 PA decision to turn down 50 new villas in an artificial lagoon area in an area previously designat- ed as a protected ecological zone. Tumas Group is a shareholder in the Electrogas consortium along with Gasan Group who jointly own GEM Holdings. Both groups have benefitted from new policies on high-rise by having permits ap- proved in both Sliema and Mrie- hel. Mriehel was included in the list of localities by the government by stealth, after the conclusion of a public consultation on the Floor Area Ratio policy. Land reclamation needs parliamentary approval According to Maltese law all land reclamation proposals in- volving the transfer of the seabed to private interests need the ap- proval of parliament. This is because the public do- main act proposed by the opposi- tion and approved by parliament in May 2016 stipulates that any area of the seabed proposed for land reclamation has to be de- classified first because the sea- bed will automatically become part of the public domain. This means that there will be a public notice and debate on any project to reclaim land. Moreo- ver the first 15 meters of re- claimed land must be recognised as part of the public domain even after land reclamation takes place. distribution centre in energy demand 41,000 people to receive government food packages PAUL COCKS 41,000 people will soon be re- ceiving food packages from the government after a family profil- ing exercise identified numerous individuals and families who did not meet the criteria for the food scheme funded by the EU, Fam- ily Minister Michael Farrugia announced. Farrugia, who was addressing a press conference at the LEAP Centre in Birgu yesterday, said that the new scheme will be in- troduced shortly and that a ten- der for the supply of food had already been issued. "When providing the food packages provided by the EU, we introduced the profiling pro- gramme and identified another 41,000 people who would benefit from receiving the free food but who did not meet the criteria un- der the EU scheme," he said. Around €300,000 from the consolidated fund had been allo- cated for the new project which will provide free food packages to people who receive age pen- sions, families with a single de- pendent child under 16 years, families with a single dependent child under 16 and who already receive energy benefits, and peo- ple receiving disability pensions. Farrugia said that in February 2013, 13,984 people had been re- ceiving social assistance, single parent allowance and unemploy- ment benefits. By August this year, that num- ber had dropped to 9,668, mainly due to the number of people that had managed to find employ- ment in the past three years. The minister said that the number of people under 23 years of age receiving social assistance had dropped from 1,202 in Feb- ruary 2013 to 506 in August this year, a drop of 57%. In the last budget, the govern- ment had allocated 'In-Work ' benefits to 209 families where only one parent worked, 626 families where both parents worked, and 992 single-parent families where the parent also worked. 2,328 people that had found employment since 2015 had ben- efited from the government's 'tapering system', through which they continued receiving social benefits for the first three years of their employment. Farrugia said that the number of women who returned to work continued to increase year on year under this administration; 23% in 2014 and 12.6% in 2015. Between April 2015 and April 2016, the number of women in full-time employment rose from 62,000 to 66,000, wheras the number of women in both full- time and part-time employment rose by 700 to 8,000, and the number of women in part-time employment rose from 19,600 to 20,500. Michael Farrugia said that the new scheme will be introduced shortly and that a tender for the food supplies had already been issued