Malta obtains its ‘biggest allocation of EU funds’ ever from new EU deal, PM Abela says

Malta has obtained what the Prime Minister described as the “biggest allocation of EU funds” from the deal struck over the course of this weekend, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday morning.

After a mammoth four-day summit in Brussels, the 27 EU countries agreed on an unprecedented €1.8 trillion budget – €750 billion of which is a dedicated Coronavirus fund, and the remaining €1 trillion or so being the EU’s next seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

In a social media post early on Tuesday, the government said that Malta had obtained the biggest allocation of EU funds in its history.

Sharing the post, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri said that the Prime Minister had managed to obtain the biggest allocation of funds for the next seven years, indicating that the government’s statement refers to Malta’s allocation under the MFF.

No details have been given as of yet of what Malta’s allocation entails.

In May, when the Coronavirus economic package started being drafted, the European Commission offered Malta a package of loans and grants of almost €1 billion.

The one-off proposal was for a €992 million cash injection consisting of €350m in grants and €642m in loans, payable by 2058.

Meanwhile in terms of the MFF, Malta had secured €1.1 billion for the period between 2013 and 2020 after talks negotiated by then Prime Minister of a Nationalist Party government Lawrence Gonzi in 2012.