Hope for Malta farmers over €3m fund in EU Council

Malta’s farming authorities say they have secured a derogation at EU governmental level, in hope of clawing back €3 million in funds for farmers that were ‘lost’ in a reform package voted on by MEPs

With only six Maltese MEPs in a parliament of 705, obtaining special safeguards for the small Maltese agricultural sector is always a struggle against the louder demands of larger member states
With only six Maltese MEPs in a parliament of 705, obtaining special safeguards for the small Maltese agricultural sector is always a struggle against the louder demands of larger member states

Malta’s farming authorities say they have secured a derogation at EU governmental level, in hope of clawing back €3 million in funds for famer that were ‘lost’ in a reform package voted on by MEPs.

The European Parliament failed to obtain a derogation that has allowed Malta to allocate €3 million in “voluntary coupled support” for farmers.

But Malta’s agricultural ministry policy director Bjorn Azzopardi, told MaltaToday that the derogation remains incorporated within a concluding text by the AGRIFISH Council, even though the European Parliament’s proposal completely omits the €3 million annual support Malta enjoyed in the 2014-2020 CAP strategy.

In the EU, both the European Parliament and the AGRIFISH Council each have their own proposal of how the next seven-year Common Agricultural Policy should be financed.

With only six Maltese MEPs in a parliament of 705, obtaining special safeguards for the small Maltese agricultural sector is always a struggle against the louder demands of larger member states.

But Azzopardi said that inside the Council, progress made has had more success. “With every member state enjoying equal standing during Council meetings, the ministry for Agriculture managed to secure derogations and provisions better suited to Malta’s agricultural industry, such as increased flexibility between the CAP funding pillars.”

The absence of the derogation in the reformed CAP proposal was a major point of contention brought up by Labour MEP Alfred Sant in the European Parliament, who argued that the omission of the derogation would lead to the definite collapse of the Maltese agricultural sector – it was for this reason that he voted against the parliamentary proposal. The Ministry for Agriculture has since assured that the derogation is not a lost cause, and efforts have been made to safeguard funding for the dairy, meat, and tomato for processing sectors – all bulwarks of the Maltese agricultural industry.

The next step in the policy process is for Parliament and Council to defend their own proposals, and dialogue with the EU’s executive – the European Commission – through the trialogues mechanism, an informal set of negotiations between the three entities in the hope of fast-tracking the legislation.

“We have been holding bilateral meetings with the European Parliament’s rapporteur and shadow rapporteur of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation in the hope of convincing Parliament to compromise on a common text throughout the trialogues, while also holding meetings with Maltese MEPs so that they can exert influence within their party groups,” Azzopardi told MaltaToday.

Europe is still far from seeing a finalised farming strategy anytime soon. While the trialogues are in their initial phases, the document will not be completed until at least mid-2021, with months of trialogue expected in the run-up.

“Government will be trying to exert influence in Brussels, but now it's up to compromise in the trialogues,” Azzopardi said.