Labour MEP Alfred Sant has voted against the EU Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan and stated that it was not adapted to Malta’s particular agricultural landscape.

In an explanation of his vote to the European Parliament plenary session, Alfred Sant said that a derogation allowing the allocation of up to €3 million per year of voluntary coupled support to Maltese farmers remains missing from the strategic plan.

Without this derogation, Maltese farmers would face massive drops of essential support that could mean the definite collapse of the sector. In view of this, Sant voted against both the Commission Proposal as well as the final EP Plenary Report on the CAP Strategic Plan.

Alfred Sant had attempted to include the derogation through an amendment in the Budget Opinion and by representations with European Parliament negotiators but the proposal was not taken on board. 

The European Commission first issued its proposal for reform of the CAP in May 2018, following a public consultation which had resulted in the Communication "The Future of Food and Farming", published in November 2017.

Alfred Sant said that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy remains today a very relevant and much needed tool for European farmers but noted that, since 2003, a third of EU farms closed down.

In his explanation of vote, he noted that it was essential that the CAP is adapted to the current socioeconomic conditions of all member states and such adaptation has to include the needs of the different landscapes within the EU.

Alfred Sant noted that, unfortunately, both the original Commission Proposal on the CAP Strategic Plans, as well as the EP text amending it, fail to do so and added that it can no longer be denied that over the long term, EU membership has resulted in a steady erosion of the Maltese agricultural sector.

CAP interventions in Malta should be designed in such a way as to rectify the damage. There is no other way by which they would make sense.