Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) has expressed its disgust at the Planning Authority’s latest attempt to ”silence the public by hiding objections from them.”

In a statement, FAA highlighted the fact that the Planning Authority is the guardian of the Aarhus Convention, the EU Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information, ”a case of putting the fox to guard the chickens.”

It insisted that ”instead of upholding these rights, the PA had already eroded them by limiting access to persons registered with an e-ID, effectively blocking access to information to a large part of the population.”

FAA argued that ”the PA’s claims to be upholding data protection is spurious and disingenuous as it is already infringing privacy norms by tracking users navigating the PA website.”

If objectors want to remain anonymous, there is the option to submit objections anonymously, therefore privacy issues are no justification for withholding information. The PA can also list objections without names and addresses, it said.

The NGO stated that, ”the PA had no such privacy qualms when PA employees dug up activists’ archived files and passed confidential information to the media, nor when enforcement officers revealed the identity of residents reporting abuse. No disciplinary action was ever taken in those cases.”

”The permitting process is meant to be public just like hearings, minutes of meetings, plans etc.” it said. ”Objections are part of the process. Permits should be seen to be fair just like any judicial process.”

FAA concluded by saying that, ”although the PA has now reversed this decision, the very fact that it attempted to block transparency shows that it is still intent on aiding and abetting developers’ abuse.”

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