€44 million allocated for Malta-Italy cross-border cooperation

Malta is to benefit from an EU allocation of almost €44 million in the 2014-2020 period as part of the cross-border cooperation agreement with Italy, an increase of €14 million from the previous allocation.

This was announced by Parliamentary Secretary for EU funds and 2017 presidency Ian Borg as he addressed a technical meeting of the BioDiValue strategic project, part of the Italia-Malta 2007-2013 project.

Borg explained that this is part of the government’s plans to transform Malta into a “maritime hub” and emphasised the importance of this sector to the economy.

The BioDiValue project – an EU-funded, €6 million project - aims to limit the detrimental effects of pollution between Sicily’s South East coast and the Maltese and Pelagian Islands, an area of high-traffic shipping routes, by developing a set of operational tools for local maritime traffic administrators, monitoring vessel traffic, building an online database of the main characteristics of all vessels using the area and the building of an unmanned submersible probe that will collect water quality data and images.

This, in turn, is hoped to result in a qualitative and quantitative analysis of sea traffic in the Strait of Sicily through the development of a “state of the art” monitoring system, which will measure the environmental impact of maritime traffic pollution, in order to estimate the cost of this pollution.

The Italia-Malta 2007-2013 project is an EU programme that promotes competitiveness and provides assistance with the stated aim of strengthening the attractiveness and competitiveness of the cross-border area through environmentally sustainable methods.

A total of 24 projects have been selected under this programme, of which 15 are finalised. These initiatives will all have concrete outcomes like the BioDiValue project.

Borg also announced that government has been allocated more funds from the EU regional development funds, adding that this time, all of Sicily will also be eligible, as opposed to just the Southern region as was the case in the past. This, Borg said, will hopefully make it easier to find Sicilian partners for Maltese business ventures.

He expressed his hopes that the allocation to the project, which coincides with the appointment of Karmenu Vella as EU commissioner for environment, fisheries and maritime affairs, will result in the building on the present experience on safeguarding the environment and safeguarding biodiversity in the Strait of Sicily and will provide great opportunities for all involved.

Addressing the meeting, Italian ambassador to Malta Giovanni Umberto De Vito congratulated the authorities as well as the other entities involved in this partnership.

“This project reflects the commitment of Italy and Malta in safeguarding the maritime environment”, said the ambassador, adding that better protecting maritime diversity in this area is a shared concern, expressing his hopes that this project will provide useful information to achieve this goal.