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2 NEWS 1.12.2022 MATTHEW VELLA THE European Commission has ap- proved the CAP Strategic Plan of Mal- ta. e new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), set to start on 1 January 2023, is designed to shape the transi- tion to a sustainable, resilient and mod- ern European agricultural sector. Under the reformed policy, funding will be more fairly distributed among farms, with an emphasis on small- and medium-sized farms, as well as young farmers. Moreover, farmers will be supported to take up innovation, from precision farming to agro-ecological production methods. By supporting concrete actions in these and other areas, the new CAP can be the cor- nerstone for food security and farming communities in the European Union. e new CAP incorporates a more ef- ficient and effective way of working. EU countries will implement national CAP Strategic Plans, combining funding for income support, rural development and sectorial programmes. In designing its CAP Strategic Plan, each Member State chose from a wide range of interventions at EU level, tai- loring and targeting them to address their specific needs and local condi- tions. e Commission has been as- sessing whether each Plan is aimed towards the ten key CAP objectives, which touch upon shared environmen- tal, social and economic challenges. e Plans need to be in line with EU legislation and should also contribute to the EU's climate and environmental goals, as set out in the Commission's Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strate- gies. e CAP will benefit from €270 bil- lion of EU funding for the 2023-27 pe- riod. e Plan approved today repre- sents a total EU budget of €122 million, including €47 million dedicated to en- vironmental and climate objectives and eco-schemes and €4.9 million to young farmers. Malta's agricultural sector faces sev- eral challenges due to its limited agri- cultural land, and natural constraints. e Maltese plan aims at providing a fair income for farmers and workers, and improve rural conditions and infra- structure while supporting sustainable agricultural practices. Around €18.1 million of CAP funds will be allocated to stabilise farmers' income. Addition- al coupled support will be provided to sectors undergoing difficulties, such as beef, dairy, sheep and tomatoes. e plan also supports investments in infrastructure beneficial to the ag- ricultural sector, such as the upgrade and modernisation of roads in rural ar- eas and improved farm waste manage- ment. e plan has a particular focus on young farmers with a start-up sup- port of up to €100,000 for successful business plans. In terms of environmental action, €30 million of public money will be invested to support projects to, among others, store, collect and recycle water. Malta is also aspiring to increase the share of organically farmed agricultural land in spite of the challenges this entails due to the small size and fragmentation of the fields. In general, it is foreseen that more than 4,100 people will bene- fit from training and advice on how to be more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Malta submitted its first CAP Stra- tegic Plan proposal on 28 December 2021, after consultations with stake- holders. It then sent its reviewed pro- posal, addressing the Commission's ob- servations, on 10 November. To be approved, each plan must be complete and compatible with the legislation, and ambitious enough to deliver on the CAP objectives and EU environmental and climate commit- ments. Bottling recycling company eager to avoid connection with Keith Schembri Brussels green-lights 122 million agricultural funds for Malta MATTHEW VELLA THE operators of Malta's fledgling beverage container refund scheme has said it has no connection with the Kas- co Group, whose principals were once angling for the prospective recycling scheme. BCRS Malta said it had no links, as a company or as operators of the re- verse vending machines, with Kasco, the group of companies run by Keith Schembri, the disgraced former chief of staff to prime minister Joseph Muscat. Schembri stepped down from his role at the height of the December 2019 politi- cal crisis when his secret business part- ner, Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, was arrested and accused of master- minding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "Following media reports which may have caused the public to form a mis- taken impression, we feel the need to clarify that BCRS is a not-for-profit company incorporated by beverage producers, importers and retailers as- sociations, and that our machines are manufactured and supplied by different companies to those mentioned in the press," BCRS said in a statement. Both Yorgen Fenech and a Kasco di- rector, Malcolm Scerri, had communi- cated in the past with an intention to set up a company that would take over Malta's national beverage recycling scheme. BCRS said it welcomed public scrutiny of its operations but said it should not be "gratuitously linked to political con- troversies of which we form no part." BCRS runs an €18 million state-of- the-art facility in Hal-Far and 320 re- verse vending machines manufactured by Envipco, a US technology company that has been in this line of business for over four decades. e operations of BCRS are regulat- ed by the government agency Circular Economy Malta. "We will seek to better explain the op- eration of the scheme – which is simi- lar to ones successfully in operation in various EU countries – in the coming weeks as we pursue recovery and recy- cling targets that are more ambitious than those imposed by the European Commission," the spokesperson said. BCRS Malta Ltd was incorporated by the Malta Beverage Producers Associ- ation, the Malta Beverage Importers Association and the Malta Beverage Re- tailers Association with the obligation, among others, to assume the collective extended producer responsibility on be- half of producers, importers and retail- ers of single-use beverage containers.

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