State aid rules within the European Union were being applied to peripheral or isolated regions and islands such as Malta and Gozo as if they belonged to the mainstream and better endowed centres of the Union, former Prime Minister MEP Alfred Sant said.

Speaking during the European Parliament’s plenary session which started to debate the Commission’s ‘Annual Competition Report for 2014’, of which Dr Sant is shadow rapporteur, he said this approach could not be justified by the argument that structural and cohesion funds already compensated for the disadvantages with which these territories were burdened.

“They do not. The sectors of communications’ infrastructures, aid to small and medium enterprises, energy, the protection of traditional small scale activities in small islands like Malta and Gozo do not carry systemic significance in the context of the continental single market.

“To apply to these regions the same treatment as for the centre of Europe, is helping to increase structural disparities that already exist between the centre and the periphery of the European Union,” he said.

He called for an urgent review of the modus operandi of the director-general for competition,  as well as for a reform of its organisation.

The report aims to give a thorough criticism of the Commission's past work and is of special reference to small island states.

It makes  a series of references to the importance that when applying competition rules,  the Commission should take special consideration of the social and economic impacts  on peripheral and insular regions of the EU.