Farmers' Association on Xarabank

The Xarabank team denies it had any intention of preventing the Farmers' Association from giving their contribution in the edition in which Gunther Verheugen, the EU commissioner, was the special guest. The association was invited just like all the other organisations from all sectors of society.

In all, 36 organisations accepted our invitation with the unfortunate consequence that time was even more tight than usual and some organisations did not have an opportunity to speak. We sincerely regret the inconvenience and legitimate frustration.

Within these constraints we tried to cover as wide a spectrum of interests and issues as possible. This was the only rule we used to choose which organisations were given the microphone to speak. In fact, organisations representing farmers, hunters, Gozo, trade unions, students, journalists and employers were all given the chance to speak during the programme.

The farming sector was particularly heavily represented during this programme. In fact, members of the Malta Agricultural Lobby, the Progressive Farmers' Organisation, the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement and a winegrower, had the chance to ask questions. So much so that Mr Verhuegen remarked that he was getting the impression that Malta was an agricultural country.

It was our intention to include other organisations like the Farmers' Association, among others, at a later stage in the programme. Unfortunately, Mr Verheugen's time was limited and he had to leave.

We have also invited the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi and Euro critic Jens-Peter Bonde to be our guests in forthcoming Xarabank programmes.

In these programmes, we will give priority to organisations like the Farmers' Association, which did not manage to comment or ask questions during the Verheugen programme.