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“We will get Lm100 million a year from the EU,” said the then deputy leader of the PN, Prof Gwido Demarco prior to the 1998 general election. “We will get Lm50 million a year by right from the EU,” barked PN Leader Dr Eddie Fenech Adami just a few days later.
We have now been told by premier Dr L. Gonzi, that we will be getting a net sum of Lm27 million a year from the EU budget period 2007 to 2013. A far cry from the Lm100 million and Lm50 million a year promised by the PN leadership in 1998. And these Lm27 million a year have a big question mark about them!
The Prime Minister said so himself when he said that now the “big challenge” is for us to “tap” all the Lm27 million a year, for which “we have to work very hard”!
If one examines what the PN government had succeeded in tapping from EU funds available to Malta – as accountant and auditor Joe Sammut has done – one finds that the government had only managed to get around 20 per cent of funds available. Can anyone truly believe that this time round the same people will succeed in tapping 100 per cent of available funding? If the PN government manages to get 50 per cent of available EU funds, this should be considered quite an achievement. This will mean a net sum of Lm14 million a year on average – as much as Dom Mintoff’s Labour government squeezed out of the British exchequer in 1972, 33 years ago! And he got those millions in order to make Malta a truly independent country!
Today the reverse is happening: Malta is paying the British government for the pleasure of having reverted to a neo-colonial status. Now Dr Gonzi is again dreaming of “1 billion euros” (!) But more about this next time.
Eddy Privitera
Mosta
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