Today the EU Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu will start a two day visit in Malta. The programm will include a visit to the Oncology Hospital which was 85% funded by the EU. She told Rachel Attard, in an interview, that the Maltese authorities need to use the remaining funds from the 2007-2013 financial programme by the end of the year otherwise these will be lost.

 

What advice can you give Malta to be better geared towards using EU funds to create jobs and growth in Malta?

Cohesion Policy has been significantly reformed for the new programming period 2014-2020. Not only is it more performance-oriented and focused on results, it also targets investments at key areas able to deliver on the European goals of growth and jobs, such as research and innovation, digital technologies, the low-carbon economy and the support to start-ups and SMEs.

At the same time, our investments are also tailored to the specific needs of national economies and citizens.  In Malta, we will focus on fostering competitiveness through boosted innovation capacity in the country, on sustaining an environment-friendly and resource-efficient economy, and on creating new opportunities for the Maltese people by investing in human capital and tackling social exclusion.

Almost €828 million from the European Structural and Investment Funds will support the country in its efforts to create jobs and growth over the 2014-2020 period.

Furthermore, in line with the objectives of President Juncker's Investment Plan for Europe, I encourage every Member State to double their use of European Structural and Investment Funds channelled through financial instruments compared to the 2007-2013 period. It will help fully exploit the potential of our funds and multiply their impact on the ground.

I want to congratulate Malta on being a pioneer in that field; Malta is in the leading group of countries benefiting from the SME initiative. The country decided to allocate €15 million from its European Structural and Investment Funds envelope to this innovative tool, designed to help small businesses get better access to much needed financing.

The SME Initiative is a joint financial instrument of the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.  It is a key measure to leverage increased private and public resources for the benefit of small businesses, which form the vast majority of Malta's companies. Here, it is expected to generate more than €60 million of additional investments for SMEs over the next few years.

 

EU funds are often criticised for being excessively bureaucratic, would you agree with that sentiment? What are you doing to reduce bureaucracy?

I completely agree. In the management of our funds, there is a pressing need for simplification, while preserving sound administrative and financial management. I do not want to hear again that an SME is no longer interested in receiving our support because it finds it too lengthy, bureaucratic and cumbersome.

The new regulations for 2014-2020 offer a range of opportunities to reduce the administrative burden for beneficiaries and simplify their access to EU Funds. These include a set of common rules for all European Structural and Investment Funds, with simpler ways to reimburse costs and an increased use of online procedures in Cohesion Policy-funded projects.

In July I launched a High Level Group on Simplification which purpose is to assess the uptake by the Member States of these new simplification opportunities to access and use the Funds, thus reducing the administrative burden for beneficiaries.

On our side, we will explore what we can do to further improve the rules. The Group, which will be chaired by former European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas and which will hold its first meeting on 20 October, should deliver its first recommendations as early as 2016. Its work should be relevant for the implementation of the current programming period and in the perspective of the post-2020 framework

How big a problem is fraud in administering these EU funds? What is the Commission doing to address the issue?

I have said it many times, and I will say it again – I have zero tolerance for fraud with the EU budget. Nevertheless, frauds should be distinguished from "errors", which can be of administrative nature and fortunately, only 0.2% of all errors reported in Cohesion Policy management are caused by fraud.

To safeguard the EU budget, we have a solid audit system in place and we systematically interrupt or suspend payments as soon as problems are identified.  We also work hard in cooperation with Member States to eliminate the sources of errors. In 2014 we were able to resume payments to more than half of programmes affected by interruptions, on the basis of audit evidence that all problems were solved and the necessary financial corrections carried out.

To step up a gear in our fight against fraud and corruption, in March, I launched the Integrity Pacts project for Regional Policy. Integrity Pacts were developed by the NGO Transparency International to support governments, businesses and civil society to improve transparency in public procurement. An Integrity Pact is a legally binding agreement between the Managing Authority and companies bidding for public contracts stating that they will follow a transparent procurement process.

We are now piloting Integrity Pacts for several projects co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund.

Were you disappointed not to have been able to travel to Malta for the inauguration of the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Hospital on 20 September? When were you officially invited?

I received the kind invitation of Deputy Prime Minister Grech and Parliamentary Secretary Borg back in March already, but unfortunately my agenda did not allow me to come to Malta sooner. I have been looking forward to visiting your country for a long time.

I am glad to be able to visit the new Oncology Centre, an important project that was developed with the Maltese people's health and wellbeing at heart. I am particularly proud that European funding support the Maltese authorities in providing better healthcare to the people of Malta.

Is the refugee crisis affecting the allocation of resources from regional funds?

As President Juncker said, our first priority is to act on the refugee crisis as a Union.

In 2014-2020 €20 billion from the European Regional Development Fund are earmarked for inclusive growth measures which support social integration, including for legal migrants, such as the development of housing and childcare infrastructures or the regeneration of deprived urban areas. Furthermore, I already announced that I was exploring how Cohesion Policy funds could contribute to further addressing the migration challenge, especially in the framework of cross border cooperation programmes and macro-regional strategies.

It is very much up to Member States to see what types of investment they need.  In some cases, perhaps some of these actions were not such a priority when the programmes were being prepared a year ago.

As I stated previously, we are completely open to changing programmes in order to adapt to new circumstances. If Member States need these types of investments, I invite them to get in touch with me and my services swiftly.

Is Malta in breach of any rules regarding Regional Funds? If yes, what rules and what happened?

I am happy to say that the implementation of the 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programmes in Malta is successful, in that it is proceeding normally, under the supervision and control of the Maltese authorities.

We're three months from end of disbursement period of 2007-13 Financial Programme.  What is Malta's percentage rate of successful take-up of EU funds? 

Malta's implementation rate is at 81%, slightly under the EU average (85%). As the end of the period approaches, I encourage the Maltese authorities to make the most out of the remaining 2007-2013 allocations in a swift, efficient and strategic way, within the flexibility of the existing rules.