Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo said today that rather than holding inquiries which nobody took seriously, the government needed to do everything possible to bring about a restart of the education programmes which were suspended by the European Commission.

Speaking at a press conference outside the Ministry of Education, the Labour MP blamed the ministry for not having acted effectively to avoid this controversy - which will mean that hundreds of students could lose the opportunity to study abroad.

He said that after having written to the representative of the EU in Malta, he was officially informed that funding for the programmes, which includes Erasmus, had been stopped due to persistent lack of assurance that EU funds would be managed according to the required standards.

The commission, he said, had been warning the government well ahead of the decision to cut off spending, but no effective action was taken to remedy matters.

The commission had also made its own recommendations, and it was now up to Malta to assure the commission that they would be fully implemented. The sooner that happened, the better.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100522/local/education-programmes-national-funds-cannot-replace-eu-funds

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