Membership will not affect state aid to Church schools

The government will continue to have every right to give financial assistance to Church schools after Malta joins the EU, the government said in a statement yesterday.

Reacting to remarks by Labour Party education spokesman Evarist Bartolo, the government said aid to Church schools did not fall within the EU's regulations on state aid, and several EU governments assisted Church and private schools.

"It is absolutely not true that accession could have any effect on the assistance which the government gives Church schools. It is ironic that the Labour Party is seemingly trying to defend Church schools when, in the past, it caused them so many problems and even closed some of them down," the government pointed out.