Without any doubt, each and every Maltese citizen has come into contact with some sort of advertisement or information related to Malta’s

benefits from EU funding. Many car drivers experience this each and every morning while passing billboards publicising that nearby road-works are co-financed by the EU; others have heard about it through various press releases, TV features, advertorials and newsletters, among others. Moreover, one can also note that this EU funding has been directed to various private, public and not-for-profit organisations to finance a variety of projects.

For this reason, many tend to wrongly assume that the EU has an unlimited funding budget and funds everything and anything under the sun. In reality, the European Union awards grants through various funds/programmes in order to implement projects or activities in relation to European Union policies, acting as a means of concentration and also as an additional source to government’s expenditure.

European Union history clearly reflects the above. In March 1957, the six founding member states signed the Treaty of Rome that aimed to develop a European Economic Community, thus making it possible to abolish Customs barriers between these six countries. For the effective materialisation of the common market, the Treaty itself mentioned that regional disparities had to be reduced. This led, among other things, to the development of the European Social Fund (ESF).

The ESF is the EU’s main source of financial support for efforts to develop employability and human resources. It helps member states combat unemployment, prevent people from dropping out of the labour market and promote training to equip Europe’s workforce to face new global challenges.

It still plays an important role today, by being one of the EU sources of support to the European Employment Strategy and to the Lisbon Strategy. This year the EU is celebrating 50 years of ESF: 50 years of employment-related support through this oldest structural fund.

By building on the Customs union that was developed by 1968, the common market was created on 1 January 1993. This was made possible through the adoption of the Single European Act (SEA) in 1986; moreover, this act also enshrined the cohesion policy as part of the treaties. All this was further substantiated by the Treaty on the European Union (also referred to as the Treaty of Maastricht) signed on 7 February 1992, that provided a more fertile land for the common market by supporting a more integrated Europe on the regional, mone-tary, social and economic fronts.

For this reason, the Cohesion Fund was set up in 1994 in order to support projects in those member states with a per capita GDP of less than 90 per cent of the EU average and an economic

convergence plan. This fund supports projects in the fields of the environment and trans-European transport infrastructure networks. Between 2004-2006, Malta benefited from a total of EUR21.9 million from this fund and the money was invested in projects to upgrade the Sant’ Antnin waste treatment plant and material recycling, the restoration and upgrading of sections of TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Networks) and also on preparation of projects in the environment sector to be financed by the Cohesion fund 2007-2013.

Successive enlargements, notably those in 2004 and 2007, have increased regional disparities, thereby giving more importance to all the policies and programmes that support regional policy.

The Treaty on the European Union also introduced the concept of European citizenship, which led to added value to the community programmes. Apart from addressing particular sectors such as education and youth, these programmes also proved to be an important medium for the promotion of the European dimension and a way of how to expose and create synergies between different European cultures. This was enforced through the various partnerships between organisations from different countries and the transnationality dimension that these measures included with their eligibility criteria.

The European citizenship concept was taken more seriously during the beginning of this decade when Eurocrats felt that the citizens were unaware of the work being done by the EU for the European citizen. For this reason, a programme was devised in 2004 with an active European citizenship as its central theme. This was further strengthened in 2007, when a new programme known as the Europe for Citizens Programme was developed with a budget of EU215 million for the 2007-2013 period.

This programme will help to ensure a sense of ownership of the European Union among its citizens, develop a sense of European identity and also foster a sense of understanding and tolerance between European citizens.

One should also note that this programme came into play as a means of supporting the European Commission’s Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate that aims for a wider debate on the EU between the EU’s institutions and its citizens. Both the Europe for Citizens Programme and Plan D emphasise the importance of the role to be played by civil society in the future of the EU.

Sometimes people tend to criticise the EU funding programmes due to their constant change of rules and priorities. Although this may be a negative point for the experienced promoters and beneficiaries, one should analyse such an issue from a more objective perspective. The fact that the EU constantly changes and amends its strategic priorities, according to its policies, on the basis of research and analysis, shows that the EU’s expenditure is directed towards areas where funds are more necessary.

For example, both in its European Employment Strategy as well as in the Lisbon Agenda, the EU stresses the importance of continuous education. Continuous education is a means of enhancing the employability and adaptability of our labour force, thus ensuring better jobs and, more importantly, minimising the possibility of unemployment. In order to stress this point, the Leonardo da Vinci Programme and the Socrates Programme, that target vocational and formal education training respectively, have been merged into one programme for the 2007-2013 period, referred to as the Lifelong-Learning Pro-gramme. In itself, this emphasises that the two worlds of education and work should not only be related, but should be seen as constantly complementing each other

Mr Micallef is Funding Support Officer at Forum Malta fl-Ewropa