Genuine producers from the island of Gozo are an integral part of the feel good factor that Gozo has to offer and deserve more support ‒ MEP Francis Zammit Dimech made these remarks during a round table discussion with producers from the island of Gozo and representatives of the Gozo Tourism Association, the Gozo Business Chamber and NGOs at the European Parliament in Brussels.
He said that since being elected to the European Parliament, he is holding a series of consultation meetings with various stakeholders to understand their challenges and aspirations and to reflect this in his work at the European Parliament.
He emphasised that he wants to be the voice of the people of Malta and Gozo at the European Parliament. Referring to discussions on the future of Europe he said that these also need to take into account national and regional sentiments. Zammit Dimech also emphasised on the European principle of subsidiarity and the need for regional issues to be decided in Gozo.
Paul Scicluna from the GTA outlined that whereas tourism played an important economic role for the island's economy, limited data and statistics specific to tourism in Gozo were in hand.
He said that seasonality in Gozo was still remarkable and thus the association was proposing measures, such as reduced VAT rates throughout the winter period, to tackle such issue. Using self-catering regulations as an example, Scicluna said that the one size fits all approach was unfair on the island when taking into account its challenges.
Michael Galea from the GBC spoke about various socio-economic factors that have an impact on business in Gozo including the aging population owing to the fact that young people were not residing or returning to Gozo following their studies. He remarked that more investment was needed in transport and connectivity. He also spoke about the proposal of the Chamber for special VAT rates to apply in Gozo to incentivise investment in Gozo and counteract the challenges faced.
Present for the meeting was also Martin Bugelli from the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy who spoke about cohesion policy with particular reference to regional policy which funds operational programmes in European regions. Bugelli explained the Eurostat NUTS (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) system used to classify European regions. A discussion ensued on the particular characteristics of the island of Gozo.
Zammit Dimech also organised a meeting for the Gozitan producers with the Brussels Invest and Export Office thanks to the support of the Malta Business Bureau in Brussels for these to seek avenues and opportunities on how to further extend their business overseas.
Throughout the week Zammit Dimech also hosted an exhibition portraying the culture, lifestyle and natural assets of the island of Gozo at the European Parliament which saw the participation of eight photographers from the Gozo Photography Association.