Roderick Galdes, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights, refers to the article published on the back page of last Saturday’s edition of Times of Malta under the title ‘Chicken farm in Qrendi given close to €400,000 – Maximum funding allowed under development programme is €150,000’. The report gives the impression there was some form of abuse of EU funds. This is absolutely not the case.

It is true that the farm in question has benefited, both under the previous Administration as well as the present one, from Rural Development Funds, but this has occurred under two different measures and within separate calls for applications under each measure, and in accordance with the operational programme for the fund.

One of these measures, M121, was primarily intended to help operators modernise their agricultural holding. The second, M123, was primarily directed towards adding value to agricultural products.

Within each measure separate calls for applications can be issued to address different aspects of the measure. Each beneficiary could benefit from a maximum sum of €150,000 under each call for applications under each of the measures and that may be issued during the programme period. The article was therefore not correct in stating that the maximum grant that could be granted under the programme could not exceed €150,000.

The four projects submitted by the Ciappara family were all in order and in all cases the €150,000 under each call was fully respected, in line with regulations. The Parliamentary Secretary believes the way the article was written puts his reputation in doubt and therefore reserves the right to subsequently take any other action as provided in the law.