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Dr. Mallia’s article last Sunday “Those EU Funds” is very misleading as it implies that no scrutiny is being carried out by the EU on the funds coming from EU sources.
First of all, allow me to make the distinction between two types of funding: the indirect and the direct.
Indirect funding such as the structural and cohesion funds (the € 805 million being Malta’s current allocation for the 2007-2013 financial perspectives) is essentially the responsibility of the Maltese Government to spend according to agreed priorities with the European Union. These funds are spent mainly on infrastructural projects or in respect of the attainment of certain impending social objectives. Under applicable rules the EU obliges the beneficiary governments of the member states to spend a percentage of total funds in communication and visibility activities aimed at informing the public on the use of the funds allocated to the member state in question. The EU4U Road show currently touring different localities in Malta and Gozo is one such activity undertaken by the national authority managing these funds.
Direct funding is a different kettle of fish. It must be pointed out at the outset that these direct funds do not form part of the previously mentioned €805 million. Direct funds are available within the framework of specific programmes managed by the various Directorates (DGs) within the European Commission and are aimed to promote and enhance the respective policy areas in which the EU plays a proactive and key role. These include programmes which are well known such as Leonardo and Socrates as well as hundreds of other, more specialized yet perhaps not so well known programmes. Government, local councils, NGOs etc submit a myriad of projects in accordance with the criteria and objectives of the specific programmes. These are subject to an evaluation exercise before a final selection of the beneficiaries is made. The criteria is very strict and the criticism usually levelled at these programmes is that the measures taken to ensure transparency and that there is no opportunity for fraud, embezzlement etc. are too rigorous, and not, as Dr Mallia implies, too lax. The recently published Green Paper on Transparency (an initiative of DG Administration and until recently the subject of a widespread public consultation across the EU-25) is proposing an even more watertight framework in this respect. Indeed at the beginning of this summer the Representation in Malta sent a copy of the Green Paper to our database of NGOs, civil society, inviting their comments. On-line comments could also be submitted via our website. I invite Dr Mallia to have a read through and add her comments to those of thousands of fellow EU citizens who, like her, have transparency at heart.
Dr Mallia also takes the EU’s agricultural policy to task saying that this is a law unchanged since 1958. Nothing could be further from the truth. The EU’s agricultural policy has undergone a radical change with a series of reforms, culminating with the reforms in 2003 and which in effect decoupled subsidies from production, the main bone of contention.
Dr Mallia also takes the Commission Representation in Malta to task for not “lifting a finger or complaining on the infringements of EU laws and regulations by the Maltese Authorities. This criticism is wide off the mark as any infringement known to this Representation is forwarded to the relevant authorities in Brussels, as indeed was done for Dr Mallia earlier this year when she had an issue with the Italian immigration authorities. In addition, I would like to refer Dr Mallia to the infringement procedures initiated by the Commission against Malta during the past year or so – the case of the departure tax and the fuel import monopoly being only two recent examples.
I would also add that the EU is armed with a host of legal instruments and bodies to control and audit expenditures and will not hesitate to institute legal proceedings with the aim of recovering money in clear cases of the fraudulent use of EU funds.
I hope that the above serves to clarify some of the issues raised by Dr Mallia and I can assure her that we remain at her disposal should she require further assistance from this office.
Edward Demicoli
Press and Political Officer.
Ta’ Xbiex
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