3 - 9 February 2000

Government ponders over Common Agricultural Policy

by Anthony Manduca

If there is one chapter of the EU Acquis Communautaire which the government does not yet have a clear policy over it is agriculture. Official sources have told The Malta Business Weekly that the government is still rather vague about how it intends to adopt EU's Common Agricultural Policy and that with a few exceptions there is hardly anyone in Malta who really understnds what the CAP is really all about. This is somewhat worrying to some observers, especially in view of the fact that agriculture comprises over fifty percent of all the legislation adopted by the European Union.

It came as no surprise, therefore, that the government left the final screening session between Malta and the European Commission to agriculture. Official sources have also pointed out that it is very likley that agriculture will be left to the end when it comes to negotiating Malta's membership of the European Union. Sources say the negotiations, which officially begin this month, are likley to take about two years and in that time the government will have to prepare itself well for when the agricultural sector is negotiated.

The Labour Party is basing a good deal of its opposition to membership of the European Union on what would happen to the local agricultural sector once the country enters the EU. Numerous press statements are issued almost every week by the party's agricultural spokesman on the dangers of EU membership; some of these are rebutted by the government and occasionally by the Malta-EU Information Centre. Very often, however, these statements are left unanswered, suggesting that the government really does not have the correct answers. A closer look at last week's screening session on agriculture shows that very little details were discussed and the government did not make its position very clear on how it would implement the Common Agricultural Policy. Will the agricultural sector be liberalised as soon as Malta joins the EU? Will be there transition periods allowed? Will Malta adhere to common external tarifs immediately with membership? Will agricultural land be kept aside in order to preserve the environment? Will our area used for vineyards be kept to a minimum in order to reduce wine lakes?

The Common Agricultral Policy is based on three main principles. The first is that there should be a single market in all agricultural products, and for this to work common market rules were necessary, followed in 1968 by unified prices which marked the completion of the single market. The second principle is that all Member States have to show preference to products grown within the Community, resulting in duties being imposed on imports so that they became more expensive than competing home products. In parallel with this, a system of export subsidies was put in place to enable Community products to be competitive on world markets. Thirdly, the financial subsidies to farmers are pooled to make sure that no one Member State was unfairly propping up its own agricultural community.

In the first part of the screening session held in Brussels the Common Market Organisation of products of economic significance to the EU was discussed. The Maltese delegation in Brussels gave presentations on the Maltese situation on a number of products, including arable crops, fruit and vegetables (both fresh and processed), wines and spirits as well as specialised crops. In some of these cases where the crops discussed were of no economic significance to Malta, this was explained to the Commission officials present. The Maltese situation in anima1 products, such as bovine meat, milk, pigmeat, sheep and goatmeat, was also explained. The Maltese delegation also pointed out that in a number of areas, further examination of the situation in Malta was needed in order to fully assess the impact of the implementation of the Acquis.

The second part of the screening session concentrated mainly on agriculture statistics and farm accountacy, the Commission officials explaining the procedures that are used in the EU. The Maltese delegation in turn explained the Maltese situation, highlighting the applicable aspects of EU legislation.

Support available to Malta under EAGGF and Rural Development schemes was the next subject discussed. In this regard, the Maltese delegation stressed the importance of the multifunctional aspect of agriculture in Malta as well as its role in preserving the landscape and character of the Maltese Islands.

Whereas the screening process will be regularly updated whenever new EU legislation is adopted, the next step in the Malta-EU accession process will be the negotiations phase which will be officially launched on 15 February with a meeting at Ministerial level involving the Foreign Affairs Ministers of EU member states and those from the six candidate countries, including Malta, with which accession negotiations will commence.