European Union funding intended to help local farmers and herders is being used up by government agencies for public projects, the Nationalist Party claimed on Monday.
It said that the government issued a call for projects with a total expenditure of €13.2 million, of which €6.6 million is EU funding.
However, the government's own agencies will benefit from projects valued at more than €10 million, a statement signed by MEP Peter Agius and shadow minister Toni Bezzina said.
Bezzina and Agius claimed that several farmers and herders reached out to them after project proposals they submitted for EU funding were turned down.
The funding issue concerns projects related to the processing of locally produced food, and can be used towards olive pressing, meat processing and the production of meat, dairy or vegetable production.
“It is useless to attend farmer’s protests and promise to support them, only to leave them without the help they need to invest in the local Maltese product," the PN said.
Back in February, angry Maltese farmers gathered to protest twice, for the first time in 40 years, highlighting how their livelihoods were at stake due to existing and new EU policies.
As farmers drove their tractors across the island in a sign of protest, they asked for a change in EU policies to protect farmers, their families and food provision. The farmers had also called on the government to do more to protect them.
Prime Minister Robert Abela and Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo had met with the farmers during one of the protests.
In its statement on Monday, the PN said EU funding calls should include a cap on the maximum amounts that can be given to public projects.
Agius and Bezzina also urged the government to consider increasing the funds available from the financial package under the relevant measure so that projects from the previous scheme can also benefit from the funds.
In a Facebook video, Agius said the funds for farmers were tendered to two government agencies, who took "almost everything".
“So first, they (the government) go to show their solidarity with the farmers, and then when the call is announced, the government drafts the tenders, adjudicates the tender and then it gives the money to whoever they want," he said.