A final decision on whether to fully lift the suspension of Malta’s participation in two EU education programmes was expected by the end of this week, a spokesman for the European Commission said yesterday. Brussels had intended to lift the suspension of Malta’s participation in the Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes by the end of March but the EU Executive only lifted the suspension partially saying it wanted more assurances that the agency responsible for the programmes had put its house in order.

Announcing the partial lifting of the suspension, originally imposed in May last year, the Commission had said it would be sending another mission to Malta and make a final decision by the end of June.

With time running out for Maltese participants who want to study abroad come September, the Commission spokesman said: “The Commission is in the process of preparing an official reply to the Maltese authorities with detailed feedback following the Commission’s assessment of the 2010 declarations of assurance for the Lifelong Learning programme and Youth in Action programme.”

Brussels had announced the suspension of the programmes on grounds that the Maltese authorities were not complying with procedures.

The Commission had justified the suspension after noticing “a persistent lack of assurance that the EU funds were being managed according to the required standards”.

Following an inquiry by the Maltese authorities on the issue, the permanent secretary at the Education Ministry, Christopher Bezzina, and two senior officials involved in the running of the programmes had resigned their position. Months later, Mr Bezzina said, among other things, the way the government handled the funds’ suspension issue was intended merely to cause the least embarrassment to itself.