Minister for Gozo and Planning Clint Camilleri addressed the Informal Meeting of Ministers responsible for Cohesion Policy in Warsaw, Poland, where he outlined Malta’s key messages on the future direction of EU cohesion policy.

He highlighted the distinct challenges faced by small island Member States, while advocating for a tailored and flexible approach to EU policies and funding.

In his speech, Minister Camilleri expressed appreciation to the Polish Presidency for organising this timely debate, while stressing the critical role of cohesion policy as a cornerstone of EU solidarity and development.

Speaking on Territorial Sensitivity in EU Policymaking, Minister Camilleri affirmed Malta’s support for the integration of territorial sensitivity into all EU policies. However, he stressed that for small Member States like Malta, which do not have an internal regional layer, this concept must be approached differently.

“Our focus is not on addressing internal interregional disparities, but on ensuring that EU policies recognise and respect the spatial and administrative constraints of small Member States,” stated Minister Camilleri.

He called for cohesion policy to support tailor-made and proportionate solutions that take into account Malta’s scale, capacity and insular characteristics, while warning against the disproportionate allocation of resources to metropolitan regions to the detriment of smaller, peripheral, or structurally disadvantaged areas.

On the Challenges of Specific Territories, Minister Camilleri reiterated the unique and persistent challenges faced by island territories, particularly small island states. He emphasised that Malta’s territorial disparities are structural and external, linked to limited connectivity, small market size, and constraints on human resources.

The Minister also pointed out that the island of Gozo experiences major challenges that remain marginal in many EU-level assessments and instruments. He urged that insularity be explicitly and permanently recognised as a vulnerability in future EU strategies and funding frameworks, not as an exception but as a structural condition requiring consistent support.

On Territorial Tools and Governance Mechanisms, Minister Camilleri noted that while existing mechanisms such as Territorial Impact Assessments and functional area approaches may be useful for larger Member States, they often lack meaningful applicability in small state contexts.

“In the case of Malta, what we need are flexible and lightweight mechanisms that avoid imposing assumptions about scale, institutional layers, or administrative capacity that do not reflect our national reality,” stated the Minister.

He stressed that the principles of shared management, multi-level governance, and place-based development must remain central, while calling for better disaggregation of EU data tools to reflect micro-level realities and more support for adaptive governance in territories that cannot cope with the administrative complexity assumed by current policy frameworks.

The Minister concluded by saying that coherence, simplification, and relevance must guide the evolution of EU cohesion policy and other territorial policies, ensuring that they support, rather than unwittingly restrict, smaller territories such as Malta.

Photo: DOI

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