There was a future for farming in the present and future European Union member states, the EU`s chief negotiator for Malta, Arhi Palosuo, declared yesterday.

"To be frank, we face some unique problems in agriculture which are due to the special features of Maltese small-size farming and its products, which is quite different from the average EU country.

"However, it is the objective of EU rural policies to support the development of an environment-friendly agriculture," Mr Palosuo said.

Mr Palosuo was speaking during the 17th meeting of the EU-Malta Joint Parliamentary Committee held at the Westin Dragonara in St Julian`s. The committee meets twice a year, one of its meetings being held in Malta.

He said the remaining negotiation chapters which should be closed by the end of the Spanish presidency in two months` time were competition, fisheries, taxation, environment and customs union.

"The more we can settle the above issues, the better the chances for Malta to negotiate a good deal in the remaining, so-called financial chapters, like agriculture, regional policy and budget."

At the start of the meeting, Labour deputy leader George Vella expressed strong reservations over comments made by Foreign Minister Joe Borg in an interview with The Times yesterday.

Dr Vella took exception to the final paragraph of the interview which he claimed was "planted" to put a bad light on the party and the Labour representatives on the committee.

The last paragraph of the interview with Dr Borg read: "It is a fact that the Labour Party is doing its best to undermine the process and will do anything to do so. They know that we are a proud country and that the Maltese would hate to think that their government is not sticking up for them in the negotiations; therefore they have deliberately sought to portray the negotiations in this light with little or no regard for the truth. This is the unscrupulous strategy of the Labour Party."

Dr Vella remarked: "It is most unbecoming of the foreign minister to speak of his colleagues who are here to discuss this theme (the EU). This is a parliamentary meeting."

Education Minister Louis Galea, who co-chairs the committee, said that features in newspapers were not on the meeting`s agenda although Dr Vella could bring up this point during his intervention later.

José Carvajal, the Spanish ambassador to Rome who is representing the Spanish presidency, said Spain was doing all it could to tackle the most difficult remaining aspects, most of which had important implications.

"We are also cooperating closely with the future Danish presidency to ensure a smooth transition into the final leg of the negotiations in the second half of the year."

It was important, he continued, that both the EU and candidate countries did not lose sight, in the heat of the discussion on money, of the wider context of the historic process of enlargement.

Dr Vella later queried how it was possible for the Maltese not to think about money when before the 1996 elections they had been promised that Malta would receive Lm100 million from the EU once the Malta application to join the EU was re-activated.

Dr Vella said the government was spending about Lm1 million to impress people`s minds that EU membership was the only solution, without giving them the chance to make up their mind objectively.

"There is a massive onslaught by the government on people`s opinions in favour of the EU, which is a democratic imbalance," Dr Vella said.

During the meeting, the Labour Party distributed to the delegates a copy of the terms of reference of the Malta-EU Information Centre.

"The Maltese electorate have yet to decide what type of relationshiop to establish with the EU. On such alternatives the MIC is completely silent," the MLP said in a statement.

The party maintained that MIC should also provide information on alternative policies that could be used as a basis for future Malta-EU relations.

Continuing, Mr Carvajal said the EU was aware that the considerable efforts required by Malta to be ready and able to assume the obligations of membership were often painful and represented a considerable domestic challenge.

"The necessary political, economic and social reforms that have been initiated are, however, unavoidable and ultimately to Malta`s benefit...

"In view of the difficult tasks ahead, let me once again underline to the Maltese members of this committee the crucial role they have to play in sustaining the pace of reforms in Malta and ensuring an objective debate on EU membership.

"On our part, we very much hope that the Maltese will make the choice which will see this country become a member of this family, which we call the European Union," the ambassador said.

Foreign Minister Joe Borg said Malta expected to resolve the major negotiating issues by the end of this year in order to pave the way for the signing of the accession treaty during the early part of next year.

The political dialogue with the Union was proceeding well. Malta`s growing involvement in the Union`s deliberations in the area of international relations was giving the country deeper and very valuable insights, as well as a greater opportunity to play a role in regional and global issues that were of direct relevance to Malta.

"In a few weeks` time, Malta will be hosting a meeting of EU members and candidate countries in preparation for the discussions which will take place in the Doha round of trade negotiations...

"In the coming weeks, (European Parliament) president (Pat) Cox will be visiting us, confirming yet again this interest and support. This will be the second visit to Malta by an EP president in less than a year," said Dr Borg.

Core negotiating group chairman Richard Cachia Caruana said that while the statistics showed that agriculture was a low contributor to Malta`s GDP (2.3 per cent), it nevertheless had major social, economic and environmental implications.

This was combined with the inherent constraints experienced by the Maltese agricultural sector, including not just the small amount of land still under cultivation (10,000 hectares), but also the small-scale nature of the farming activity that was practised. This had led to a number of requests for special arrangements in this area.

In the Regional Policy chapter, the remaining substantive issue that could be tackled at this stage concerned the need to cater for the special handicaps experienced by Gozo as a result of its double insularity, Mr Cachia Caruana said.

Luigi Cocilovo, co-chairman of the committee, said the EU should not be depicted as an institution which was forcing a single model to fit all.

He suggested that Malta could very well host the foundation for cultures and civilisations, an idea put forward during the Euro Med Ministers Meeting in Valencia last week.

Concluding the debate, Dr Galea stressed that the Maltese language had been accepted as one of the official languages of the EU and that he was addressing the meeting in Maltese.