Updated: Malta ending up net contributor to EU - Muscat

(Adds PN's reaction)

Malta was ending up being a net contributor to the EU giving more than it was receiving in the past two years, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking during a meeting for Labour Party supporters, Dr Muscat said that according to financial estimates, Malta only managed to get €47 million from the €163 million it had been entitled to in 2007. On the other hand, it contributed €53 million.

And although figures for last year had not yet been concluded, the government had said it would get €114 million and until November it had only managed to get €25 million.

Dr Muscat said that the local media reported that Malta was given €50 million by the end of the year but even if this was true, it was still only 44 per cent of the sum the country had been allocated. On the other hand, Malta contributed €56.6 million.

This showed that Malta was not capable of doing its job with some people being more interested in coming over to help the Nationalist Party win the election rather than in working to help the country get funds.

But the Nationalist Party said in a reaction that an official report by the EU commissioner for regional policy Danuta Hubner named Malta as one of the countries making best use out of EU funds.

The report said that between 2000 and 2006 Malta used 91 percent of the budget allocated to it, to a total of €88.7 million.

With EU membership, Malta was benefitting from more than €855 million which were being used for the benefit of the country and the people.

In the past weeks the country would be investing €30 million from EU funds for il-Maghtab and Qortin to be transformed into national parks. €10 million were allocated to Maltese entrepreneurs, especially those working in the tourism sector to improve or expand their businesses and Malta had also been allocated €32.3 million for the restoration of important bastions and fortifications. An investment of more than €4 million was being undertaken in the coastal zones of Qawra and Sliema.

Through membership, Malta was being assisted to recycle domestic waste with the modernisation of the Sant’Antnin Waste Recycling Plant with an investment of €26 million, 80 per cent of which were EU funds.

In a counter statement, Dr Muscat said the PN had not challenged any of the figures he had given for 2007 and 2008.

During the meeting, Dr Muscat said that while the government had initially said it was saving money through hedging, on February 3, Minister Austin Gatt said there was no such thing as a hedging agreement.

And while the government had said that the new tariffs were calculated on full cost recovery for Enemalta, it was said this week that the new bills were not enough to cover expenses. The government was lying or incompetent, Dr Muscat said adding that it could not wait until next month to withdraw the bills.

He referred to the problem at ST which would soon be shedding jobs and said that although some would be through natural wastage, Tnew jobs would not be created.

Dr Muscat said that although people who bought a car last year were told they could opt for the new registration system when they went to ADT to get their refund, they were told that this would not be given in cash but in credit against future license payments.

On health, the Labour leader said that pharmacies in the Pharmacy of Your Choice scheme had been given list of 692 medicines which they could not dispense because they were out of stock.