Government asks for Gozo's social and economic disparities to be reported to European Council

The government has officially requested the European Commission to report to the European Council on the economic and social situation of Gozo and, in particular, on the disparities in the social and economic development levels between Gozo and Malta.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government said it has done this as part of the ongoing discussions on the future of the European Union Budget and on the basis of Declaration 36 on the island region of Gozo annexed to the Treaty of Accession of Malta.

The government said it was convinced that further efforts were required to adequately support island territories to ensure that these regions were not undermined by the territorial handicaps they faced.

The declaration called for action to be taken before the end of each budgetary period in an effort to mitigate these challenges in future.

The government said it believed that to address the specific situation of Gozo, a tailor-made approach specific to the island's needs was required with the aim of bolstering its economic activity while protecting its inherent and distinctive natural features.

For this purpose, during the last two programming periods, it had earmarked 10% of...