Recently, I was present for the inauguration by the Prime Minister of a new Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MTB) plant at the Maghtab Environmental Complex run by WasteServ.  As a result of this investment, municipal solid waste, particularly organic waste, will be diverted from being land-filled and will be used to generate electricity from waste.   Not only we will stop piling up waste – thus creating another mountain of waste at Maghtab - but the plant will be using waste to generate energy. A win win situation.

This was another in a series of projects in the environmental sector, particularly in the field of waste management that was co-financed through EU Funds. 

Costing over €50 million, the MBT was financed from the 2007-2013 funding programme. Whilst the deadline for the submission of project proposals under this funding programme was the end of 2013, disbursement of EU Funds on approved projects could still be effected until the end of last year.

Apart from being a major investment, what was even more remarkable in the implementation of this project was the fact that it was finished on time and within budget. We were on target on both counts thanks to the efforts put in by the management and the employees of WasteServ. 

Delays in the disbursement of EU funds and complete disregard to completion or to deadlines of projects were just some of the major headaches that I inherited when I was given responsibility for EU Funds.  When, in the very beginning of this legislature, I highlighted these problems and announced that around €200 million of EU funds were at risk of being lost,  I used to be taken to task by the Nationalist Opposition and accused of inventing stories to put them in bad light.

But then, none other than the international rating agency Moody’s had its say and proved the opposition wrong.  Moody’s confirmed that Malta’s absorption rate of EU funds - at around 30% at the start of 2013 - was the third-lowest among EU countries after Romania and Bulgaria. It is not a pleasure for me to state such facts but truth has to be told.

Even the European Commission had acknowledged this failure on the part of the Nationalist Government attributing it to cumbersome administrative procedures and administrative inefficiencies which were never addressed by the Nationalist administration. Even in this respect, we took the bull by the horns and created a mechanism to streamline administrative procedures and address inefficiencies.  And we started reaping results to the extent that within the space of two years, we increased the utilisation rate from 30% to 78% and even more – something which was even described as quite a feat in the local media.  

The funding programme 2007-2013 is now closed.

I am pleased that we can look back with great satisfaction having achieved our objective of making maximum use of the funds available.  Along with my cabinet colleagues, I embarked on an intensive exercise not to lose any of these funds.  We had to be creative. We started thinking outside the box and came up with innovative initiatives and projects that at the end of the day came to fruition.  Moreover, by the end of last year, all payments had been effected. In the coming months we will determine the exact absorption rate of EU funds that were available over the last seven years and I am confident that the outcome will be a very positive one.

The results are there for all to see.

In recent months we saw the inauguration of major projects financed through the 2007 -2013 funding programme including various historical fortifications all over Malta and Gozo. Works on St. Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat, co-financed through ERDF were completed. The National Flood Relief Project, worth close to €50 million co-financed by the Cohesion Fund, is now finished. The Oncology hospital was also completed and welcomed its first patients last December. Millions were invested in employment schemes, in programmes that benefitted people with special needs, in the financing of educational initiatives.  And the list goes on and on.

I am now focussed on seeing the implementation of the 2014-2020 Funding Programme.  

No amount of unfounded stories and personal attacks, like those which I have experienced in recent weeks, will distract me from focusing on achieving the best results for Malta and Gozo. 

I will be ensuring that EU Funds are channelled towards those sectors of the Maltese economy that will benefit the Maltese people.

 

Dr. Ian Borg is Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds