More than €1.5 million in EU funds approved in January 2013 and allocated to the reform of the Pitkali market centre have been refused by the government, the EU Funds Parliamentary Secretariat confirmed.
The reform was a measure announced in the 2014 Budget but the government has decided to withdraw the grant because it was found that it did not meet the eligibility criteria of the call for applications. The grant also went against EU rules on State aid.
The funds were intended to overhaul the way the market operates, by raising standards, minimising waste, preparing and presenting products better, boosting occupational safety and hygiene and guiding production in line with market trends.
The funds had been approved in January 2013 when the allocation of EU agricultural funds was handled by the managing authority that fell under the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry, then led by George Pullicino.
Following the change in government, responsibility for the managing authority was transferred to Agriculture Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes and the process continued until the grant agreement was signed in November 2013.
The application should never have been approved
Then, in April last year, the government decided to move the management of agricultural funds from the Agriculture Parliamentary Secretariat to the EU Funds Parliamentary Secretariat.
It was here that the €1.5 million grant was questioned and the issue referred to the State Aid Monitoring Board.
The board, which falls under the European Affairs Ministry, said the application should have never been approved.
This leaves Mr Galdes with the problem of having to fulfil a commitment made in the Budget without the funds that had been allocated to the project.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said in the 2014 Budget speech: “In the course of the coming year, the government will be launching a reform in the Pitkali market centre, both on a structural and an operative level.
“The Pitkali market has been in a state of neglect for a number of years and the last improvements made date back to a previous Labour government.
“The aim of this reform is to have a system where produce can be graded and where both the farmer and the consumer can be given guarantees of quality and a fair price.”
Meanwhile, questions on the possible privatisation of the vegetable market were raised in Parliament by Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina. Environment Minister Leo Brincat told him: “The government is willing to consider and evaluate any possibility which could advance the Pitkali markets centre.” He also said no decision on this had as yet been taken.
The aim of the funding stream Measure 123, under which the Pitkali grant fell, was to “add value to agricultural products”. This newspaper ran a series of articles in July and August last year on the questionable allocation of funds under this stream as well as Measure 121, aimed at the modernisation of agricultural holdings. The reports led to an EU probe.