Here is an extract from a recent press release issued by the European Parliament on the subject of the shortfalls in the proposed EU budget 2014-2020: “... Malta managing to secure up to €1,128m in EU funds for the seven-year period, which was considered better than if Malta was still an Objective One member state”.

For nearly a decade since we joined the EU, Objective One status has always been something to cherish as affording us privileged funds once our GDP did not exceed 75 per cent of the EU average.

For a time we even feared losing this advantage when the benchmark necessarily dropped as poorer countries joined in.

Now, it seems with hindsight that we could have been better off if we had negotiated fiercely instead of just resting on Objective One. Possibly, our new MEPs sensed this when they preferred to dodge the subject with media reporters last month.

As an American would say, “Something must be wrong with the ballpark”!