Malta has been granted a nine-month extension to settle its extra €13 million EU-contribution bill, which was presented during last month’s EU summit meeting, a Finance Ministry spokesman has confirmed.

The decision was taken during an EU finance ministers’ meeting at which Finance Minister Edward Scicluna asked for clarifications on Malta’s behalf.

The spokesman pointed out that during the meeting “no one questioned the amounts due”.

The ministers agreed to amend the regulations so that member states would be able to defer the payments to not later than September 1, 2015, without incurring interest.

Last month Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Malta would seek an explanation from Brussels to ensure the statistical mechanism behind the rise in Malta’s contribution had been applied correctly. The revision is carried out annually and is based on a member state’s gross national income.

Another eight member states got similar bills, fuelling controversy especially in the UK and Italy which were among the worst hit. British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed not to pay a single penny of the €2.2 billion bill that his country received.

Last Friday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne proclaimed victory as he emerged from talks in Brussels saying the bill had been halved.

However his claims were later challenged by a number of finance ministers who pointed out the final amount remained unchanged.

EU officials suggested that Mr Osbourne had used an accounting trick by moving forward part of the rebate the UK would have normally been due from the EU at a later stage.

The UK government has denied such claims.