Gozo

What was negotiated on Gozo?

Negotiations on Gozo are still under way and the impression that has been given over recent days that they were complete was altogether incorrect.

Malta is seeking to negotiate a specific protocol on the island of Gozo and negotiations on this protocol are still under way, even though negotiations on regional policy were closed last week.

The EU treaty acknowledges that island regions, such as Gozo, suffer from permanent disadvantages which need to be addressed. On its part, Malta claims that Gozo suffers from permanent disadvantages as a result of its status as a small island within an archipelago of islands (double insularity), its small population size coupled with high population density, its limited resources and its environmental fragility. All these factors have an impact on the economic and social development of Gozo.

As a matter of fact, in 2000, Gozo's regional GDP stood at just 71.7 per cent of Malta's national average, which in turn, is just over half of the EU average. This means that Gozo lags far behind when compared to EU countries.

In order to address Gozo's disadvantages, Malta wants to negotiate a special protocol for Gozo that takes into account both its funding requirements as well as its other needs. Negotiations on the Gozo protocol are still under way and one has to await the outcome of these negotiations to get the full picture on Gozo.

The closure of negotiations on regional policy last week was wrongly presented as being the conclusion of negotiations also on Gozo. This is not the case since the protocol is still under discussion.

However, the issue of relevance to Gozo (but also to Malta) in negotiations on regional policy related to whether Malta and Gozo would be considered as a single or as separate regions. This is a partial issue and has limited meaning on its own without awaiting for negotiations on the protocol.

Yet, negotiations on regional policy confirmed that Gozo and Malta would be considered as different regions.

But this does not mean that the relationship of Gozo with the central government in Malta will change in any way. This is purely an internal issue and the EU does not get into it. It was never up for negotiation with the EU in the first place. It is up to us, not the EU, to decide how Gozo should be administered.

For EU purposes, treating Malta and Gozo as separate regions is mostly relevant for the purposes of statistics. This distinction is more significant than it seems because it means that separate statistics will be compiled for Malta and Gozo which will therefore give the full picture of Gozo on its own as against Gozo as part of the national territory. Without this regional distinction we could not establish that Gozo's development lags behind that of Malta.

However, this regionality business has no direct bearing on the level of funding that Gozo is likely to get, for the simple reason that both Malta and Gozo are expected to qualify for the highest level of funding from the EU in any case.

On the other hand, it does have a bearing on what happens if Malta eventually advances economically but Gozo still lags behind. Although this is unlikely to happen in the near future, it is nevertheless important and legitimate for Gozitans to argue that they should still be eligible for funding if this happens. This point is being specifically considered under the protocol. Which is why the protocol is much more relevant for Gozo than the closure of negotiations on regional policy.

The question of regionality also has a bearing on whether Malta and Gozo get a separate allocation of funding which are separately managed and administered. Originally, Malta sought a regional division that would have led to three different administrative structures to deal with funds in both Malta (Majjistral and Xlokk) and Gozo. Subsequently, however, this was dropped because it was found to be more cost-effective to set up one single set of national authorities responsible for managing funds.

The lead department will be the regional policy directorate which has already been set up to prepare the country to absorb EU funds. As a result, there will be one single pot of funds from which both Malta's and Gozo's needs will be addressed, although, as I said, this has no bearing on the total funds coming to the country.

And in order to ensure that a high priority is given to Gozo's needs when it comes to spending EU funds, a separate priority in Malta's plan for EU funding will be dedicated to the "regional development of Gozo". This priority will be based on Gozo's special needs that were identified in a specific study on Gozo and will include the financial indications for Gozo's priorities, projects and measures.

Moreover, the Ministry of Gozo will set up a regional project committee which will provide an input into the programming phase concerning Gozo's development and in the selection and implementation of projects and measures for Gozo. This will ensure that Gozitans will still be directly involved in how funds are spent in Gozo.

But the most relevant issue remains the protocol, the negotiations on which are still under way. It is a pity that the political exchanges over the past week did little to clear the minds on what is being negotiated on Gozo and a lot to confuse them.

Malta-EU Information Centre: Tel: 25909192; Fax: 21227580; E-mail address: euinfo.mic@magnet.mt; Website: www.mic.org.mt

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