Minister Christian Cardona has recently publicly promised remedies to those who have suffered injustices.  To date the Minister has talked the talk but hasn’t yet walked the walk with respect to the lack of funding to the Malta Co-operative Federation (MCF).  Meanwhile, the Central Co-operative Fund Committee, the members of which were appointed by Minister Cardona, continue to fund the other co-operative federation.

Upon taking office in 2013, Minister Cardona committed himself to putting an end to the injustices that the MCF has faced since its inception in 2012.  Both he and the Co-operatives Board (also appointed by him) promised to put an end to this discrimination.

And yet the promises repeated to the MCF Council by the Labour Government that the co-operative legislation would be amended in order to remove the discrimination have not been kept.  Despite the fact that the MCF Council has been informed, repeatedly, that the new legislation is ready for publication, to date nothing has changed.  There has been no material progress and discrimination against the MCF continues unabated despite the commitment by government to complete the Central Co-operative Fund reform through the new legislation by the start of 2015.

The MCF considers the lack of funding a deliberate act of discrimination against the Federation and against its Members.  The MCF’s members, which total almost a quarter of registered co-operative societies in Malta, contribute almost half of the total annual co-operative societies’ contributions to the Central Co-operative Fund.

Rolan Micallef Attard
CEO Malta Co-operative Federation