No new taxes under new EU budget and COVID recovery funds - PM

Malta will not be subjected to any new European taxes under EU budget and coronavirus recovery funds package which has just been negotiated, Robert Abela said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a press conference at Castille on Tuesday evening, a few hours after Malta received its largest-ever EU funds allocation, €2.25 billion, for the financial period of 2021-2027.

The sum includes €1.923 billion from the EU’s budget – the multiannual financial framework – as well as €327 million from the newly established recovery package known as Next Generation EU. This amount excludes the loan element in the same package.

Asked by MaltaToday whether any taxes on Europe's financial services market would be introduced to generate the funds, Abela said this was not the case. "We did not negotiate any new digital tax," he said.

EU Secretariat head Glenn Micallef there wouldn't be any new financial services taxes. "No new taxes were introduced to make good for the funds," Micallef said.

Abela said he was "very satisfied" with the record package Malta had managed to negotiate.

"We achieved this success by making strong arguments and being convincing. We departed from a point of being determined to be catalyst for an agreement to be reached. We were clear that we were ready to fight for what is ours."

He said that the €2.25 billion figure did not include the €327 million in loans which Malta could choose to make use of. "Malta will be able to benefit from the loans if we think it is opportune to do this. The government is still exploring whether we will need to use the loans. If we do include the loans, the whole package would be around €3 billion."

The funds will be used to continue to renew the country and the government, the Prime Minister underlined.

Funds will be directed towards areas including capital projects, agriculture and rural development, fisheries, young people's education and training, improving the environment and quality of life through combatting climate change, social assistance, digital innovation, investments in Malta's security, and more invest in Gozo, he added. At least 10% of the cohesion and agricultural funds will go towards Malta's sister island.