20 - 26 September 2001

Position on agriculture expected by December

by Ivan Brincat

The European Commission is expected to finalise its common position on the Agriculture chapter in December, European Commission sources told The Malta Business Weekly.
The Maltese government is still working on the position it will take on this chapter. It is deemed to be one of the most difficult chapters even though the government says the sector only represents between two to three per cent of Malta’s GDP.
Agriculture is the only chapter that has not been opened for negotiation between the European Union and Malta. The chapter was expected to be opened this year under the Belgian presidency but it is now becoming clear that Malta’s position will only be finalised by the middle of December. This means that the chapter can only be discussed next year.
Despite the delay, the timing is in line with other applicant countries who are expected to begin negotiations on this chapter next year.
The agriculture chapter has been the subject of controversy locally with considerable criticism being levelled at the government over how discussions have been handled.
However, Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Borg explained that there are three parts of the agriculture negotiation paper, two of which have been completed.
The first part, regarding veterinary services was drawn up first, sent to the interested sectors, and adopted with some changes. It was then sent to Brussels as was the second part of the position paper.
The third part, and the most controversial, still has to be discussed. This includes the all-important financial package which is still being drawn up by the Ministry for Agriculture and the EU Directorate.
This document should have originally been ready by the end of August but more time was needed. The government is now hoping to be in a position to finalise the document in the coming weeks.
Meetings will then be held with the special interest groups to explain to them what financial package the government will be asking for each sector.
Then it will be discussed at a MEUSAC meeting in mid-December, sent to the Cabinet sub-committee and later to Brussels.
The secretary general of the Association of Farmers Peter Axisa told The Malta Business Weekly that the association needed financial support because the “Lm2,000 they receive from government is a pittance”.
“It all boils down to money. The changes that have to be made are huge and it is a full-time job. Our biggest problem is that we do not have the necessary structures in place,” he said.
He confirmed that farmers have not received any information on the compensation package being requested. “We still have to see how much this will be and for how long subsidies will be retained.”
Mr Axisa said the Association needed a base in Brussels and also wanted to organise seminars. The question is, however, who will pay for these initiatives. “We simply have no means of financing these initiatives on our own,” he said.
He said the Association, set up in the 1940s, needed to work even if the farmers voted against membership because “if the country wants to join, then life goes on and we have to make the best out of it”.
Mr Axisa said that Eastern countries, who at first were enthusiastic, are now admitting that the effects of membership on the agricultural sector will be bad and they have to work out how they would be least affected.
A report by Deutsche Bank Research said that negotiations on agricultural policy will be particularly delicate because enlargement will considerably increase the cost to the EU budget. EU farmers fear severe market losses in favour of new members who have twice as much arable land and 50 per cent more farmland per inhabitant than their EU competitors.