The Forum confederation of trade unions has slammed the Government for withholding EU funds from its members.

In a strongly worded statement, Forum president Paul Pace claimed that the Labour Government was shirking its responsibilities towards the unions by withdrawing vital funds under the EU’s Social Cohesion Programme.

“These funds are direly needed by trade unions in order to honour their European commitments by participating and contributing in its various institutions.

“Participation in such European forums is essential and hence unions are being effectively deprived from having an active role in the development of European policies,” Mr Pace said.

But the Government said that the funds the confederation was referring to were national funds and not European.

These funds are direly needed by trade unions order to honour their European commitments

Moreover, it said the funds were stopped under the previous administration when the budget for the Malta-EU Steering Action Committee was reduced.

The Social Dialogue Ministry, under which the funds fall, said it was committed to strengthening the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee and having non-governmental organisations and unions benefit from EU money.

But Mr Pace said the minister, Helena Dalli, was “either intentionally or unwittingly” confusing the pre-accession funds with the Social Cohesion Funds.

Forum appealed to the Government to create a mechanism for unions to access these funds and refrain from making excuses “as if trade union officials were some sort of stupid, third-class citizens”.

It also appealed to other unions to unite and back its plea.

In fact, the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin issued a statement later expressing its surprise at finding out it was no longer going to benefit from Social Cohesion Funds. It said it had been hoping to use this money on EU projects and research.

It complained that the information had reached it unofficially and said it was useless to talk of social dialogue when even basic communication was not being practised.

The union said it was under the impression that the Government was doing its best to procure funding for social partners.

It was now attempting to understand the Government’s position formally.