Just a few days ago, I asked the European Commissioner for Budget Gunther Oettinger whether he thinks Malta will still continue receiving EU funds post 2020 and his answer, understandably, was cautious and diplomatic. The meeting was in Malta, organised by the European and Foreign Affairs committee of the Maltese Parliament.
He did not give me a straight answer and rightly so, because there are still many unknowns, not least the ongoing Brexit negotiations. It’s a pertinent question and yet hard to answer for the time being. However there are a number of avenues the Maltese government might want to explore to get more EU funds for the period 2020 till 2027.
The European Commission has just embarked on a consultation process with EU governments (except Britain, because of Brexit) on this budgetary cycle. In May next, the European Commission will publish its formal proposal and then the EU governments start talks, behind closed doors, to ‘divide the pie’ between them. The European Parliament will also be involved. Some EU countries will give more than they receive (net contributors) and others will receive less than they receive (net beneficiaries).
Malta has until now been a net beneficiary and indeed Malta is benefiting a lot from the EU pot as we can see from the success of our economy. Much of the EU money goes to infrastructure and as we all know, investment in infrastructure leads to more jobs and growth which is key to bolstering the economy.
We should be thankful to those who sought to get us into the EU and were not blocked from doing so. Only God knows where Malta would be right now otherwise. We must also be grateful to those who negotiated two full rounds of an excellent amount of funding for Malta. This has helped Malta develop into the success it enjoys today.
It is possible that the Maltese government clinches a good deal for Malta, if only they approach this sensibly and with the steely determination that Lawrence Gonzi and his top aide Richard Cachia Caruana are known for.
For starters, Malta does not form part of continental Europe. It is a small island state in the periphery of Europe. This in itself is a good argument and one which was used successfully during the negotiations of the last budgetary cycle in 2013. To my mind, the first argument can be that Malta is in the fringes of Europe with no road connections to the mainland and has by far less natural resources than other continental states.
Secondly, the very latest European Commission report (as part of the winter package, for the EU nerds) admitted that Malta needs to invest heavily on infrastructure. This means that the EU itself is acutely aware about Malta’s needs on infrastructure and therefore the Maltese government does not even need to convince the European Commission that it needs plenty of EU money for infrastructure.
Thirdly, Gozo and the South regions are lacking behind because of lack of governmental investment. The Gozo region has a double whammy; its double insularity that is. The government can at the very least, seek a special allocation for Gozo. The government can also empower the Maltese regions to be able to tap EU funds directly from Brussels, shunning the central government. It would be good if the government gives this idea some thought because the socio-economic development (or economic growth) of these two regions are markedly lower than the EU average.
As to the well-off Maltese regions, the Maltese government can try to ensure that they receive an appropriate ‘safety net’ in order to ensure that they will not be worse off when compared to the previous programming period. During the last budgetary cycle in 2013, a minimum level of support was guaranteed when compared to the 2007-2013 allocation.
I believe the Maltese government and its team can make a strong case for Malta if only they put their heads together and believe in success.
The Opposition is playing a positive and constructive role in all this, despite the fact that it is not part of any negotiations. We want the Maltese to benefit from more EU funds.
MP David Stellini is the Opposition spokesperson on European Affairs and Brexit. He is also President of the Nationalist Party Administrative Council.