Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1163844
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 NEWS 8th September 2019 European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014-2020 ANNOUNCEMENT The Director General of the Funds and Programmes Division, within the Parliamentary Secretariat for European Funds and Social Dialogue would like to inform prospective applicants that as from the 2 nd October 2019, the list of eligible applicants as listed in Section 2.3 of Sub- measure 4.4 Guidance Notes will be updated. Only Public Entities shall be eligible for funding through this sub-measure as from the 2 nd October 2019, unless otherwise notified by the Managing Authority. Prospective applicants that will no longer be eligible for funding through this sub-measure following the 2 nd October are therefore urged to submit their application in Batch 10, by 1 st October 2019. Rural Development Programme for Malta 2014-2020 Part financed by the European Union Co-financing Rate: 75% European Union; 25% Government of Malta The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas 8th September 2019 European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014-2020 ANNOUNCEMENT The Director General of the Funds and Programmes Division, within the Parliamentary Secretariat for European Funds and Social Dialogue would like to inform prospective applicants that as from the 2 nd October 2019, the list of eligible applicants as listed in Section 2.3 of Sub- measure 4.4 Guidance Notes will be updated. Only Public Entities shall be eligible for funding through this sub-measure as from the 2 nd October 2019, unless otherwise notified by the Managing Authority. Prospective applicants that will no longer be eligible for funding through this sub-measure following the 2 nd October are therefore urged to submit their application in Batch 10, by 1 st October 2019. MATTHEW VELLA THE Spanish tuna ranching giant Fuentes is preventing the Maltese tuna lobby and competitors from taking active part in a case implicating the company in a tuna laundering operation. The Federation of Mal- tese Aquaculture Producers (FMAP) had appointed a Span- ish lawyer to follow an inves- tigation into illegally-caught bluefin tuna. 79 people were arrested in a Spanish police raid on the sale of 80,000 kilos of illegally- caught bluefin tuna, acquired from Malta and Italy. Yet the FMAP were pre- vented by the court from tak- ing part in the case as a parte civile. Now Ricardo Fuentes e Hijos has filed its own opposi- tion to an appeal by FMAP to the court decision, saying that there are no proven damages against the federation. Fuentes is also arguing that the lobby is not a legitimate party to the court process. "We are surprised at this objection," said FMAP chief executive Charlon Gouder. "What we're trying to do is safeguard the integrity of the tuna industry in Malta, but also the image of Malta itself. This kind of opposition obvi- ously prevents us from doing so." According to previous state- ments issued by Europol, no reference was made to fish fattened in any of the Bluefin tuna farms in Malta, but to fish allegedly caught in Italian and Maltese waters. "It is in our interest to make sure that this investigation has got nothing to do with our tuna fattening industry," Gouder said. "The focus of the investigation ap- pears to be fishing of Bluefin tuna and not to fish harvested from any of the Maltese aqua- culture producers." Fuentes's subsidiary in Mal- ta, the Mare Blu company, is in fact not a member of the FMAP tuna lobby. The Spanish companies im- plicated in the police opera- tion are said to have acquired the tuna fished over and above quotas allocated to Maltese and Italian fishing companies, and falsified documentation on the tuna. The case also led to the in- definite suspension of Malta's fisheries department's direc- tor-general Andreina Fenech Farrugia, who was discovered to be in direct contact with one of the Fuentes principals on a dedicated Spanish mobile phone line. Arrests were made in various provinces by the Spanish Civil Guard and Europol in what was codenamed Operation Tarantelo. The Spanish civil guard esti- mated that the criminal gang could have moved an annual volume of over 1.25 million ki- los legally imported from Mal- ta, but then also trafficked over 2.5 million kilos of overfished tuna, estimated at a value of €12 million. The operation dates back to 2017, with the tapping of small businesses which then spread to major European tuna ranch- ers, namely Ricardo Fuentes e Hijos. Investigators then stum- bled on a truckload of 50,000 kgs of allegedly illegal tuna from Italy. The investigations were cen- tred in the region of Valencia, while security forces from Italy and France took part in the op- eration. "Investigations revealed that the fish was being traded ille- gally in Spain, but imported in- to the country through French harbours, after being caught in Italian and Maltese waters," Europol said. Fish caught in Maltese wa- ters, it said, were illegally im- ported using documents from legal fishing and authorised farms. On the other hand, fish caught in Italian waters arrived in Spain without documents or inspections. "Although most of the fish was caught in Malta and Italy, in Spanish waters there were also unauthorised catches, in this case, the illegally fished Bluefin tuna was transported in false bottoms under the deck of a vessel," Europol added. It said this illegal Bluefin tuna market was up to 2.5 million kgs every year, double the an- nual volume of the legal trade. Maltese tuna lobby appeals court's refusal to give it representation, Fuentes files opposition to parte civile appearance Tuna laundering: Maltese pushed away by Fuentes in Spanish case