The Finance Ministry denied a claim by the MLP’s acting leader and spokesman for finance, Charles Mangion, that Malta had missed out on drawing Lm9 million due from the EU. The claim, the ministry said, showed that either the opposition was not updated about how the EU budget worked, or that the opposition wanted to deceive the people.

The EU budget for 2007-13 came into being on 1 January this year and the Nationalist government had not only negotiated an EUR 855 million packet for Malta, but had been the first of the 27 EU members to conclude the technical negotiations and the process leading to the approval of programmes drawn up by the government.

On membership in May, 2004, a financial packet had been agreed up to the end of 2006 which made Malta a net beneficiary, getting Lm2 million in EU funds each month. That concept ended with the financial programme for 2007-13, the ministry said. Funds were now related to the implementation of projects and while in the first seven months of 2006 Malta had received Lm14 million, to which Dr Mangion had referred, Malta was not entitled to any such money this year.

On the other hand in the first seven months this year requests had already been submitted for Lm11 million for implemented projects, and to date the EU had passed only Lm5 million, so was Lm6 million in arrears, money which needed to be included in government revenue. Contrary to the impression Dr Mangion wanted to convey, the government was achieving its monthly financial aims.

As for the claim that the government was failing in its expenditure aims, the government saw that as a result of economic expansion government revenue had continued to rise, which allowed the government to increase its expenditure. As a result the government had accelerated its payments to the medicines sector by about Lm3 million, had voted Lm1.2 million for residential roads, Lm1.5 million for MCAST, Lm1 million to the tourism authority, and an extra Lm1 million to Malta Enterprise and some other sectors.

This was the result of economic expansion, the ministry said.