MEP Alfred Sant told the European Parliament that in a Europe which should stand for the welfare of all citizens, there should be no place for state aid rules that seek fairness for big enterprise, and deny support to small and traditional concerns.

“State aid procedures employed by the European Commission to vet commercial and economic decisions need to be reappraised drastically.They are increasingly failing to recognise that the single market is a fractured one.”

Dr. Sant said there is a refusal to recognise that state entrepreneurship can be a valid tool in peripheral regions by which to promote new economic activity or sustain old and dying ones. “All this is unfair and mistaken.”

He stressed that some economic activities of peripheral regions — islands, coastal and mountain areas — need state subsidies to survive, if we want them to survive. Adding that relatively marginal activities in peripheral economies which account for a minimal percentage of overall turnover in the single market, should be exempted from state aid criteria when investment and commercial measures are being taken in their favour.

“But decisions are increasingly relying on one size fits all methods.” Dr Sant reiterated. “Peripheral regions with limited endowments have been subjected to competition from areas where vastly superior resources prevail. Traditional small scale occupations run by micro enterprises are not allowed protective breathing space.”

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