If EU funds come with strings attached, then it could increase the administrative burden associated with their management and stifle economic growth, Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds Aaron Farrugia said.

He was speaking during the General Affairs Council (GAC) on Cohesion Policy held in Luxembourg, where he criticised a recommendation that new conditionalities should be imposed on the implementation of EU funds.

“The aim behind enabling conditions is to ensure that the right framework is in place at the national level, to enable the effective implementation of funds — and certainly not to increase obligations that may actually not be linked to the objectives of the funds, or that may result in increasing the administrative burden in the implementation of the funds,” he said.

The objective of the GAC meeting was to take stock of the package for 2021-2027 and to debate the future challenges.

Malta is in favour of the speedy adoption of new funding regulations to avoid delays whose ripple effect could ultimately affect citizens.

Concerning the challenges envisaged for the 2021-2027 programming exercise in light of the 2019 country specific recommendations, the parliamentary secretary said the main challenge to ensure that what the Commission was recommending would actually match the needs on the ground.

“As for the challenges that may occur during the mid-term review exercise in 2025, we consider it is important that there will not be disruptions in the programming of the funds and we should avoid making the system so complex that it will lead to an excessive administrative burden,” the parliamentary secretary said.

With regards to how to reconcile economic governance and the convergence objective Dr Farrugia acknowledged that the link was necessary, but also that a one-size-fits-all approach would not work, with tailored solutions required to ensure effective convergence on the ground.