Maltese farmers need additional EU funding to help them cope with what is becoming Malta’s endemic drought, MEP Peter Agius has said. 

"Farmers are losing crops due to the severe drought in Malta and are spending large sums on purchasing water. At this rate, Maltese agriculture cannot compete. Europe needs to understand this and adapt its criteria to ensure Malta can continue to produce fresh, local products,” Agius said. 

Speaking in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, Agius called on the European Commission for direct assistance to tackle the drought in Malta.

Many Maltese farmers were spending large amounts of money on water to save their crops, he said, making agriculture less economically viable and putting Malta’s food security at risk. 

Agius noted that Malta received just 249mm of rainfall in 2023, meaning the country’s climate was technically within the definition of a desert. The European Commission had to step in to compensate Maltese farmers for this drought, he said. 

The MEP’s intervention came during a committee meeting focused on EU efforts to allocate funding to farmers who suffer losses due to natural disasters. 

The proposed new EU regulations would give member states flexibility to compensate farmers for crop losses. 

However, the proposed regulation is focused on events deemed “extraordinary”. Agius fears this will exclude Malta’s drought – which is becoming a yearly event – from qualifying for emergency funding. 

He asked the committee whether the regulation was flexible enough to cover encouraged the Maltese Government to apply this regulation, which would allow farmers to receive up to €42,000 in compensation for losses incurred due to drought. These funds would come from unallocated EU resources that would otherwise be lost.