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Rural development plan discussed in Ceratonia seminar

"This meeting called by the Ceratonia Foundation and its Austrian and German counterparts comes not a moment too soon. We are several months late in preparing a rural development plan for Malta which will allow us to utilise the programmes of the EU to ease the pain of the changes that will have to be made in view of EU accession."

This was said yesterday by Alternattiva Demokratika Chairman Harry Vassallo when addressing the audience that attended the Ceratonia foundation's seminar entitled ‘The Challenges of Rural development’, at the Osborne Hotel in Valletta.

The Ceratonia Foundation which is the counterpart of AZAD and the Mikiel Anton Vassalli foundation organised a day-long seminar to examine the subject. The seminar included interventions from MLP spokesman Noel Farrugia and Ninu Zammit, the Minister for Agriculture.

In his speech, Dr Vassallo had unkind words for EU policies which encourage overproduction and then finance non production. But he added that the EU offers substantial assistance in financing rural development costs - up to 80%.

Other speakers included Arnold Cassola, from the European Federation of Green Parties, Win Kersten, policy advisor on agriculture and environment with the European Parliament and Richard Hubmann a biological farmer and Hannes Lorenzen a policy advisor in rural development with the European Parliament.