Malta misses out in EU environment programme

Only one Maltese environmental project was submitted this year to the European Union's Life Environmental Programme and it was not selected by Brussels for funding.

This means that no Maltese environmental organisation or authority has managed to attract some of the €160 million allocated through the Life Programme this year. This contrasts sharply with other new member states that managed to get a number of projects approved.

In all, 186 projects were selected. Almost all EU member states, including the new ones, have had one or more projects approved.

Sources close to the EU Commission told The Times that the majority of member states presented a number of projects to be financed under the programme in order to make sure that at least one of the submitted projects is selected.

The sources said that although the authorities themselves (government departments and agencies) could present their projects, the programme also attracts a number of projects from non-governmental organisations, especially environment related ones and from the private sector.

The sources said it was unfortunate that there was only one Maltese project submitted and this showed a lack of interest by Maltese organisations.

Established in 1992, Life is the EU's financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the EU, in candidate countries and in some neighbouring regions. The general objective of Life is to contribute to the development and implementation of EU environmental policy by financing specific actions. Since 1992, about 2,400 projects have received EU funding under this programme, representing an EU contribution of €1.4 billion to the protection of the environment.

Replying to questions by The Times, Simon Goss, from the Environment Directorate of the European Commission, declined to disclose who had submitted Malta's project for funding and why the project was refused. He said that for reasons of confidentiality, the directorate general is only allowed to inform the applicants of the reasons why their project was not selected. He said this has already been done by means of a letter.

In the past years, Malta has benefited substantially from a number of projects selected under this programme. As a candidate country, in the period 1994 - 2003, Malta had submitted a number of projects under the Life - Third country programme. Eight projects where selected and almost €2 million allocated. These projects where mainly submitted by government departments and agencies.

Malta's next chance to attract funding for environmental projects will be in 2005. A new call for proposals will soon be issued.