Malta has €1.3 billion earmarked in EU's proposed new budget

Malta could receive €1.3 billion for social cohesion, agriculture, fisheries and security under the EU’s proposed 2028-2034 budget, though the figure remains subject to ongoing negotiations.

The EU’s 2028-2034 budget will include a new fund, known as National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPP), bringing together several funding streams that were previously separate under a single umbrella.

These include funds for key policy areas such as cohesion, migration, security and agriculture.

According to the European Commission, the fund makes up 44% of its proposed €1.98 trillion total budget, making it comfortably the largest single funding stream in the budget.

The European Commission’s budgetary proposal suggests Malta could receive a total allocation of €1.3 billion through this fund, should the proposal be approved.

Sources say this would mark a slight 3% rise compared to the equivalent funding streams in the previous EU budget.

According to the European news site Euractiv, Malta is one of just six countries earmarked for an increase in allocation, with member states set to lose an average of 8% compared to their equivalent allocations in the previous EU budget.

In total, the fund covers €771 billion of the EC’s proposed €1.98 trillion global budget, Euractiv said.

'Malta would be one of lowest beneficiaries'

Nevertheless, Malta would be one of the lowest beneficiaries from the fund, with only Luxembourg likely to receive less, at €600 million.

These figures are not yet cast in stone, with negotiations between the European Commission and the European Parliament now in full swing.

The European Commission had first put forward its proposals for the new EU budget last summer, with EU insiders suggesting that Malta could pay out more than it receives for the first time since it joined the bloc in 2004.

Sources say it could yet be another year before negotiations are finalised, with the proposed allocations likely to change as discussions progress.

It is also unclear how Malta will fare in the EU budget’s other funding streams, which include the European Competitiveness Fund, dedicated to innovation and industrial competitiveness, and Global Europe, a fund aimed at improving international cooperation.

According to sources, discussions are currently centred on both the size of the overall budget being proposed by the Commission and the way it should be divided across the bloc’s different priorities.

Should the proposed €1.98 trillion budget be slashed, cuts to the NRPP are likely to follow, sources say.

Discussions over how to ensure that countries dedicate a reasonable portion of their allocation to each priority are also ongoing.

Sources say negotiators are exploring setting a minimum threshold that each country would be obliged to set aside for each policy area covered by the fund, with each country then free to allocate the remaining portion of its allocation as it sees fit.