Minister for the Economy and Industry, Silvio Schembri, announced that the Cabinet has approved the enactment of amendments to Regulations on Government-owned Agricultural Land (SL 573.06). The scope of these amendments is to rationalise and simplify the current Lands Authority processes for the transfer, allocation, disposal, and general administration of government-owned land granted by the title of Agricultural Lease (Qbiela).
The proposed amendments are designed to provide solutions for a large number of pending requests for the transfer and allocation of agricultural tenements. The current regulations would see the rejection of these requests. The proposed amendments are therefore required to break the impasse on several long-standing issues which can be resolved through the rationalisation of regulations.
The new regulations shall remove current obstacles to the transfer of agricultural land between family members, or to third parties in the case of, for example, the retirement of the current farmer.
Such legal obstacles today include limits to the size of buildings for the transfer of tenements, the need to obtain permission from in solidum co-tenants, and the difficulty in recognition of co-cultivators as the legitimate successors to the lease.
In addition, the regulations shall also allow the processing of a large number of old applications for recognition of tenants or transfer of tenements which, due to these legal obstacles, have been left pending for many years.
All of this means that farmers that have been making use of government land for many years, can now put their minds at rest that future generations shall be able to continue in this activity without the burden of excessive bureaucracy.
Through this initiative, the government is reiterating its commitment towards those farmers who wish to sustain their activity in this important sector of the economy, and this by providing the means to maintain and sustain the viability of its agricultural holdings.
In the coming days, the Ministry for the Economy and Industry shall be announcing further details of these amendments to the present regulations.
Source: Office of the Prime Minister