Strategic vision needed

Malta needed to adopt the most appropriate strategic vision which took into account its limited human and financial resources if it wanted to be successful in the EU, Malta Business Bureau director Leonard Mizzi told an international conference in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Speaking at the conference on 'Exploring Agricultural Policy Futures for small accession economies in an enlarged EU' Dr Mizzi said that Malta's EU integration process was not simply the government's exclusive territory and more effort should be made to make the process more encompassing, with more emphasis on information and communication rather than mere consultation.

Dr Mizzi said the MBB would, over the coming weeks, analyse how the agriculture and agri-food sector would be affected by Malta's EU membership, both via market support and direct income payments and rural development schemes.

Malta's situation, he said, was also being benchmarked with that of Cyprus and Estonia, two other very small countries.

He hoped that an open and transparent debate would be launched immediately after the conclusion of negotiations to discuss with all operators in the agri-food chain the real implications of the negotiated package.