The news this week of €200,000 in EU funds going to a construction millionaire to build rubble walls provoked a few angry reactions on social media. Indeed, commentators expect EU tax-payer money to go to those who depend on it to realise added-value for the community. Truth is however, that EU funding money is designed to go to those who apply for it, correctly and in time. The Gozitan millionaire did. Many others who would really deserve EU support do not.

This is the sad reality of EU funding for Malta. This needs to be addressed immediately for Malta to continue to build on the success of EU membership. Do not take me wrong, EU funding in Malta has a long list of success stories. Maltese authorities and private sector did a very good job of working through EU funding chapters to deliver concrete projects for all to enjoy, from the Esplora educational centre in Kalkara, to the beautifully restored Cittadella in Gozo, public projects dotting the Island show the concrete benefits of EU cohesion policy.

We need to emulate our success on that front with an ambition to increase access to EU funding to private undertakings from the medium sized manufacturing company employing ten people, to the smaller family businesses to the one-man enterprises of our self-employed.

Last week I was contacted by an enterprising fisherman meaning to invest in his boat to equip it with better navigation technology and fresh fish storage facilities. His daily toil provides fresh, local and healthy food for hundreds of customers, not to mention the three people he employs. He heard about EU funding but has never tapped into it for his own investments.

I explained the process to this fisherman. He has to wait for the right call to be issued by the local departments. Then he needs to apply by deadline and within all due parameters and only then, maybe, actually purchase the equipment for his boat. Objectively, we cannot expect that public money is spent without due process, and what takes place in Malta is indeed, due process. Subjectively however, there is little chance that this fisherman and many other self-employed like him in a myriad of other sectors, will scout the ministry websites or the newspaper adverts periodically to ensure they take the opportunity when it arises.

As a first step, we need to invest in more efficient methods of communicating possibilities of EU funding. Stretching the fisherman’s case a little bit wider, in Marseille and further south in France, they set up Fishing Associations which do play an important role in assisting small fishermen identifying and applying for EU funding. We do not have those in Malta. Maybe that is part of the reason why the huge majority of the 24 million EU fisheries funding in the last period was spent on quays, piers and mooring construction rather than on the fishermen’s boats. Evidently, the piers are equally useful, but should not EU funding be there also to help the fishermen tap into EU opportunities?

To do that we must work on a radical mentality shift. The communication stage is the first weak link, then comes the application stage. We know well that many self-employed do not have the full time support of bureaucracy gurus like the Gozitan millionaire mentioned above. Without wanting to fall into clichés, it is safe to say that many farmers, fishermen, and other hands-on entrepreneurs do not look very favourably to paperwork, chasing quotations and devising business models. Undoubtedly, the applicants have to do their part, but should not the state assist in the capacity build up in these sectors? Shouldn’t the representative bodies, from the small business representations to cooperatives and other bodies be more empowered to assist their membership in tapping into EU funding for the relevant sectors?

So far, minimal effort has been put into this, and its follow-up has been little and far between. As 2020 is bowing goodbye, we shall soon start a new cycle for EU funding for Malta.  The next seven years bring with them ample opportunities of EU funding with an allocation of 2,125 billion set aside for Malta including 162 Million euro for novel Research and Investment funding which can reach hundreds of new beneficiaries across the islands. Let us continue making Malta’s EU membership a success by increasing accessibility to EU funding. Let us fend off the existing risk of EU Money becoming reserved for the few well-prepared for it and ensure that EU funding is a veritable societal phenomenon investing in the potential of our local economy, starting from its’ smallest units. 

Peter Agius, MEP candidate and EU expert

[email protected]