Malta will benefit from €8 million in EEA and Norwegian Grants under the programming period 2014-2021, aimed towards urban development and poverty reduction.
This follows the signing of a programme agreement between Malta's National Focal Point and the Norwegian Ambassador for Malta in Rome, Margit F. Tveiten, at Auberge D'Aragon, overseen by Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue Aaron Farrugia.
Aaron Farrugia expressed his satisfaction with the excellent bilateral relationships between Malta and Norway and his contentment that under this programme, Malta will be benefitting from an increase of €3 million from the previous programming period, which was closed in April of last year.
Parliamentary Secretary Farrugia announced that four projects heve been pre-defined, and are expected to be completed by the year 2022. He remarked that the implementation of these projects would ensure Malta's contribution of these funds towards the enhancement of priority sectors like social inclusion, youth employment, and poverty reduction. Children, youth at risk, and vulnerable groups in urban towns will be the main target groups during this programming period and projects will aim at boosting systematic change, he said.
The four selected projects are:
1. Reduction in social inequalities in health and the burden of disease: with a project grant of €2,407,059 to be implemented by the Ministry for Health comprising of three main strands of activities. The first strand of activities will particularly focus on closing gaps in healthcare provision for children, associated with autism and other genetic conditions. The second strand of the project will introduce screening of newborns for Phenylketonuria (PKU), another condition that can lead to significant cognitive disability and consequent social exclusion. The third strand is the acquisition of equipment to carry out Nucleic Acid Amplification (NAT) testing on blood products for any potentially transfusion transmitted agents that might even cripple our nation's blood donation setup.
2. Opportunity Knocks: valued at €941,176 to be implemented by Appoġġ within the FSWS. This will provide vulnerable young people at high risk of social exclusion, a new integrated social model programme consisting of a mix of education, physical activity and a family environment in a residential setting for those who would need a sheltered environment.
3. Training of Local Council Staff in Principles of Good Governance, Transparency and Accountability: to be implemented by the Department for Local Government. Special emphasis will be given to councils of urban localities, eligible to apply for funding under a small grant scheme to be launched by the end of this year or beginning of next year. Under this scheme, with a total budget of €1m, local councils will be able to submit project proposals ranging in value between €25,000 and €100,000 for each project aimed at reducing poverty in their localities.
4. Restoration and upgrade of the Malta Maritime Museum: in Vittoriosa to be implemented by Heritage Malta together with the digitization of about 2600 artefacts to render the collection in this museum online. The value of this project stands at €2,015,529.