The Government is having talks with the European Commission over the provision of more funds to help farmers who are investing in new projects.
Speaking at Bigfoot Farm, a rabbit breeding farm and slaughterhouse in Magħtab, which was not among the successful 35 of the 450 farmers that applied for EU assistance funds, the Parliamentary Secretary for Animals, Roderick Galdes said yesterday that the previous government knew which farmers would benefit from the Measure 121 funds but did not make this public for fear of retaliation, given that most farmers were not going to benefit.
Measure 121 is a Malta-EU programme of assistance aimed at the modernisation of facilities, investment in the environment, diversification of local products and measures to reduce nitrates.
The sum allocated was €19.8 million and €15.3 million were handed out under the first call made in 2009, Mr Galdes noted, adding that the total amount invested exceeded €33 million. This meant only €4 million were available for the second calls for applications issued in 2012 and only 35 farmers could benefit.
Mr Galdes said the Government was having talks with the European Commission to transfer an additional €4 million from the current programme for agricultural purposes to increase the total funds to €8 million.
However, when contacted, former Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino said the applications were still being processed and could not be published before the March 9 election. He explained that any EU funds had to go through an audit system.
“Had we distributed the funds before the election, we would have been accused that we did it to win votes,” he said.
He denied promising that all the farmers would benefit noting that a simple summation of all the available funds would show that not everyone could benefit, adding that applicants were aware of the money that could be distributed.
The high number of applications filed reflected the trust many farmers had in the future of the agricultural sector also because eligible farmers had to fork out half the expenses.
Mr Galdes noted that, although the funds would be increased to €8 million, still not everyone would benefit.
Farm owner Joseph Mamo said he had invested €300,000 because of the promise that everyone would benefit from the second call. In 2009, he had benefitted from €38,000 and invested €80,000.