Although Malta has so far spent only 26.2 per cent of the EU funds allocated for structural and cohesion projects, a Commission report evaluating the progress by the new member states in absorbing these funds ranks the island in a satisfactory position.
The report shows that until the end of last year, Malta had a favorable balance of €130 million after calculating the amount of funds received and its contribution towards the EU budget.
When taking into consideration the Gross Nation Income (GNI), Malta is currently one of the largest beneficiaries of EU funding among the 25 member states.
Last year, EU money amounted to 3.2 per cent of Malta's GNI, putting it in fourth place out of all the member states and only second to Lithuania when it comes to the 10 new members.
According to the report, The Allocation Of 2005 Expenditure By Member States, Malta has already committed €86.4 million in structural and cohesion projects and had received payments amounting to €22.7 million.
The best performing new member state so far is Slovenia, absorbing 34.1 per cent of the allocated funds, followed by Hungary, with an absorption capacity of 32.6 per cent. Cyprus is the worst performing new member state having spent only 19.3 per cent of its allocated budget.
Speaking during a press conference in Brussels, Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite warned member states that they must better their performance if they don't want to end up losing EU money. If funds allocated for 2004 are not spent until the end of this year, member states would lose that money.
Malta is not one of the member states Ms Grybauskaite was referring to as the funds committed for 2004 have already been spent.
A government spokesman said Malta has committed more than €14 million in EU funded projects in 2004 which by now were all spent and paid up from EU coffers.
The report gives a detailed breakdown of the EU budget during the past years and an analysis shows that until the end of last year, Malta was in very positive territory.
During 2004, Malta received €78 million and contributed €33 million to EU coffers, while last year it got €135 million and forwarded €50 million as its contribution towards the EU budget.
The current allocations to Malta were negotiated before Malta's accession to the EU and cover the period 2004-2006.
A new EU budget will come into force next year for the period 2007-2013. According to negotiations concluded last year, Malta will be allocated €805 million of EU funds under the new budget.