Farmers who applied for an EU co-financing scheme are receiving less than the 50% grant on their investment they were promised.

The Managing Authority, under the European Funds Ministry, announced an EU funding programme that covers up to 50% of farmers’ project costs, with the EU contribution capped at €15,000. This means farmers can propose projects costing up to €30,000, with half the costs co-financed by the EU and the remainder covered by the farmer.

The application attracted a number of people as it simplified the quotation system by only asking for one quotation, rather than more quotations to compare, which is standard practice.

Despite this, many farmers found that their quotation was not accepted by the authority as there were cheaper options on the market. Instead, the authority replaced the farmers’ quotations with a standard rate that reflects a cheaper option.

The authority clarified that farmers were offered 50% of their proposed investment, but according to “realistic − and reflective of − current market prices”.

Therefore, the quotations were reviewed by the project selection committee and amended according to this criterion. The authority added that this process complies with EU regulations.

Farmers got ‘screwed’

Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi president Malcolm Borg told Times of Malta that the scheme has affected around 450 farmers. Borg said some of these farmers are being offered around a 30% grant, significantly less than what was promised in the scheme.

“It has a lot of potential, but they really got it wrong,” Borg said.

Borg said the situation was a shame, as the farmers were very interested in this type of scheme as it catered for small projects, which is what farmers usually need. 

If a professional farmer requires a hardy machine to work with daily, it needs to be of high quality and durable material, thus reflecting in the price

Moving forward, Borg hopes there will be amends for those farmers that were “screwed”.

One farmer said that instead of receiving €15,000, the authority offered them €13,200 to co-finance the purchase of different appliances.

Farmers argued that for their projects, they needed good quality equipment, but the authority is denying this by offering them a discount on a cheaper option, which may not be adequate for the farmer. 

“If a professional farmer requires a hardy machine to work with daily, it needs to be of high quality and durable material, thus reflecting in the price,” an applicant argued.

They further argued that standard low-rate prices do not cater for the needs of professional farmers who need “heavy-duty machinery and innovative equipment to reduce manual interventions and fatigue”.

The applicants that did not receive the 50% funding were informed they could not amend the application. Some farmers said they chose to drop the application as the rates given by the authority do not make sense for their project.

Last week, Nationalist MEP Peter Agius posted on Facebook where he mentioned that some farmers were receiving a 30% grant from the quotations they presented, not 50%.

“If there is a system of quotations, stick to it,” Agius said.

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