(Adds government's reply)

The government is not yet in a position to start investing the €1.12 billion of European funds allocated to Malta for 2014-2020, opposition spokeswoman for European Affairs Marthese Portelli said today.

Addressing a news conference she said it was worrying that 10 months into 2014 Malta’s partnership agreement was still pending. Because of this, she said, the funds allocated to Malta could not be used.

Ms Portelli said that 18 schemes which had been offered by Malta Enterprise through EU funds had now been lost at a time when businesses were experiencing a decline. The funds, she said, could be used to create incentives to encourage economic growth.

European funds spokesman Antoine Borg appealed to the government to put rhetoric aside and start acknowledging the difficulties businesses and industry were going through. This industrial crisis, he said, was leaving an impact on families and creating a vicious circle.

OPPOSITION TRYING TO CAST DOUBTS WHERE THERE ARE NONE - GOVERNMENT

In a reply, the government accused the Opposition of trying to cast doubts where there were none.

It said the programming process of the European funds was proceeding as planned and according to EU regulations.

The government said it submitted more than one operational programme and was currently in official negotiations with the European Commission on these programmes.

It said it was committed to issue schemes for the benefit of industry and the people by the end of the year.

This, it said, was in contrast to what happened in the 2007-2013 period, when, even though the operational programmes were approved in the last week of June 2007, no schemes for industry were issued before 2009.

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