Cap. 504 Art. 2Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

"advertisement" means any word, letter, model, sign, placard, board, notice, device or representation, whether illuminated or not, in the nature of and employed wholly or in part for the purposes of advertisement, announcement or direction, including any boarding or similar structure used or adapted for use for the display of advertisements; "agency of Government" means a body corporate established by law and a company in which the Government or such body corporate, or a combination thereof has a controlling interest or which is a subsidiary of such a company;

"application" means a permission or licence application; "application report" means the final permission or licence application report; "the Authority" means the Malta Environment and Planning Authority established under article 6 and includes any body or other person acting on its behalf under powers delegated by the Authority under this Act, and the Minister may, by order in the Gazette, designate different bodies or persons as a competent authority for different provisions and different purposes of this Act or any regulations made thereunder; "biological diversity" or "biodiversity" means the variability

*See article 1(2) of the Act, as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 511 of 2010. †See article 1(2) of the Act, as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 511 of 2010. ‡See article 1(2) of the Act, as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 91 of 2011. §See article 1(2) of the Act, as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 78 of 2012. **See article 1(2) of the Act, as originally enacted, and Legal Notice 112 of 2014. "building" includes any structure or erection and any part of a building, but does not include plant or machinery comprised in a building; "building or work" includes waste materials, refuse and other matters deposited on land; "building operations" includes rebuilding operations, structural alterations of or additions to buildings, and other operations normally undertaken by a person carrying on business as a builder; "the Chairman of the Board" means the Chairman of the Authority appointed in terms of article 6; "the Chief Executive Officer" means the officer appointed under the provisions of article 13; "conservation" in relation to environment protection means a series of measures required to maintain or restore the natural habitats and the population of species of wild fauna and flora at a favourable status and for cultural heritage means any activity required to maximize the endurance or minimize the deterioration of any cultural property as far as possible and includes examining, testing, treating, recording and preserving any such cultural property or any part thereof; "the Commission" means the Environment Planning Commission established under article 35; "derivatives" means parts of any specimen, whether processed by man or not; "development permission" means a permission to carry out development granted by the Authority either on an application in that behalf or in a development order;

"discharge" includes emission, deposit, dumping, disposal, addition or introduction into the environment of a substance or energy, directly or indirectly from any point source or diffuse source, whether stationary or mobile, and whether caused or permitted intentionally or otherwise and whether continuous or intermittent or once only; "energy" includes all types of radiation forming part of the electromagnetic energy spectrum, or resulting from a nuclear source, as well as all vibrations and noise; "engineering operations" includes any physical changes to the land surface to the site topography, or the formation or laying out of roads and of means of access to roads;

"environment" means the whole of the elements and conditions, natural or man made, existing on earth, whether together or in isolation, and in particular:

(a) the air, water and land;

(e) the landscape; "erection" in relation to buildings, includes extension, alteration and re-erection; "fauna" means all types of animals and other biota including akaryotes, prokaryotes and eukaryotes, dead or alive, in whole or in part and their derivatives; "flora" means all types of plants and other biota including akaryotes, prokaryotes and eukaryotes, dead or alive, in whole or in part and their derivatives;

"functions" includes responsibilities, powers and duties; "genetically modified organism" means any of the following:

(a) an organism derived from the formation of a combination of genetic material by any means other than natural means;

(b) an organism inheriting such combination of genetic material;

(c) an organism that results from the replication of an organism as derived in paragraph (a); or

(d) such other organism as may be prescribed by the Minister under this Act; "land" includes a building; "local council" means a local council established under the Local

Government Act; "minerals" includes all minerals and substances (including oil and natural gas) in or under land of a kind ordinarily worked for removal by underground or surface working;

"the Minister" means the Minister responsible for the environment;

"natural resources" means any component of nature and includes air, water, land, soils, minerals, energy, living organisms and genetic resources; "owner" means -

(a) a person who in his own right or as agent for another is entitled to receive the rent of the land or, where the land is not let, would be so entitled if it were let;

(b) where the land is subject to usufruct, bare owner or usufructuary;

(c) an emphyteuta;

(d) any one of the spouses, where the land to which the development relates forms part of the community of acquests; "pollution" means the direct or indirect introduction by man, or due to natural processes, into the environment of substances, organism, genetic material or energy that cause or are likely to cause hazard to human health, harm to living resources or to ecosystems, or damage to amenities, or interfere with other legitimate uses of the environment; "position statement" means a statement issued by either the Minister or the Authority in order to provide a detailed technical explanation justifying a position with respect to a specific planning issue; "precautionary principle" means the principle whereby appropriate measures are taken to protect the environment and to ensure sustainable management of natural resources in the absence of absolute or conclusive scientific proof of the need for such measures; "prescribed" means prescribed by regulation, rule, order or other instrument made as provided in the provisions of this Act empowering the making of any such instrument; "project of common interest" means a project necessary to implement the energy infrastructure priority corridors and areas set out in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 and which is part of the Union list of projects of common interest referred to in Article 3 of the said Regulation (EU) No 347/2013; "public officer" has the meaning assigned to it by article 124 of the Constitution; "road" means any highway or road, whether public or private, and includes any street, square, court, alley, lane, bridge, footway, passage or quay, whether thoroughfare or not;

"scheduled buildings" has the meaning assigned to it by article 81;

"specimen" means any species, whether alive or dead, any part or derivative thereof, and includes any goods which from an accompanying document, the packaging, mark or label or from other circumstances appear to be parts or derivatives of animals or plants;

"Standing Committee" means the Standing Committee on Environment and Development Planning established in terms of article 34; "subsidiary plans" includes subject plans, local plans, action plans or management plans; "substances" means any matter, chemical, mixture, compound or product and including fuels, combinations of elements, mixtures or compounds of a chemical reaction, as well as the mixture of substances of different molecular identities; Tribunal established under the provisions of article 40 of the Act; "use", in relation to land, does not include the use of land by the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining or other operations thereon;

"waste" means any thing, substance or object which the holder discards or intends to discard, or is required to keep in order to discard, and includes such other thing, substance or object as the Minister may prescribe.