Malta has joined 16 other EU Member States in calling for the protection of agricultural and cohesion funding as negotiations intensify over the European Union’s next long-term budget for 2028–2034.
In a joint letter dated 2 October 2026, the leaders of 17 Member States called for the overall funding available for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Cohesion Policy to be preserved in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
The initiative brings together Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
The countries recognise that the EU must finance emerging priorities including security and defence, competitiveness, connectivity, energy security and resilience. However, they argue that these priorities should not be financed at the expense of established policies supporting agriculture, rural communities and regional development.
Why this matters for Gozo
For Gozo, the debate over the next EU budget is particularly important.
Agriculture on small islands operates under structural disadvantages that are not adequately captured by farm size or conventional measures of competitiveness alone. Gozitan farmers face a small domestic market, fragmented agricultural holdings, higher transport and input costs, water constraints, increasing climate pressures and difficulties attracting a new generation into farming.
These realities make a sufficiently funded CAP — together with the flexibility to adapt support to national and territorial circumstances — particularly important for the future viability of agriculture in Gozo.
Cohesion funding is equally significant. EU regional investment can help address the permanent disadvantages associated with insularity through infrastructure, connectivity, environmental investment, economic diversification and services that strengthen rural and island communities.
The debate is therefore not simply about maintaining historic EU spending programmes. It concerns whether the next European budget will continue to recognise that territorial cohesion, viable food production and resilient rural communities are strategic European priorities.
Small and island regions must remain visible
The Gozo Confederation for Agriculture and Fisheries (GCAF) welcomes the recognition that Europe’s new priorities should not result in agriculture and regional development being pushed aside.
This principle is particularly relevant to small and island territories such as Gozo.
A future CAP must recognise that a small farm operating on an island cannot always compete under the same conditions as a much larger holding on mainland Europe. Support mechanisms should therefore retain sufficient flexibility to reflect insularity, small-scale production, fragmented landholdings and higher structural costs.
The same principle should apply to Cohesion Policy. A genuinely place-based European policy must recognise that islands face permanent geographical constraints which cannot simply be eliminated through market forces.
The earlier Friends of Cohesion declaration also highlighted the importance of the Common Fisheries Policy alongside agriculture and cohesion. For Gozo, this dimension should remain part of the discussion as the future EU budget is finalised, given the importance of maintaining viable small-scale fisheries and coastal communities.
A critical stage in the negotiations
The negotiations are now entering an important phase ahead of the 2028–2034 funding period.
The 17 countries argue that Europe should provide additional resources for its emerging strategic priorities rather than finance them through further reductions to agriculture and cohesion. They have also indicated willingness to discuss new EU revenue sources and other financing options.
For GCAF, the principle should be clear: strengthening Europe’s security, competitiveness and resilience should go hand in hand with strengthening its capacity to produce food and sustaining the rural, coastal and island communities that contribute to that resilience.
As negotiations continue, GCAF will continue following the development of the post-2027 CAP and the wider EU budget to ensure that the particular realities of Gozo’s farmers, livestock producers and fishers remain represented in the European policy debate.