(Adds Ministry's reply)
The Forum group of trade unions said this morning that the government was not making funds from the EU's Social Cohesion Fund available to its members.
But in a reply the Ministry for Social Dialogue said that the fund, administered by Meusac, was financed nationally and not by the EU.
In its statement Forum said it found it incomprehensible that the government expected the trade unions to contribute towards the welfare of the country in European fora when the funds were not being made available. The former government had always honoured its financial responsibilities to all the trade unions and provided the funds on an annual basis.
The funds fall under the responsibility of minister Helena Dalli, who, Forum said, was 'either intentionally or unwittingly' confusing pre-accession funds with the Social Cohesion Fund (SCH).
The Forum said it could not accept Ms Dalli's argument that the MEUSAC budget had been reduced, and hence, the government was not in a position to honour its commitments to trade unions.
The group urged unions to protest.
PAYMENTS WERE STOPPED BY PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION - MINISTRY
But in a reply the Ministry for Social Dialogue said that the fund, administered by Meusac, was financed nationally and not by the EU.
It said that when Meusac took over the SCF from the Forum Malta fl-Ewropa, the administrative parametres were unclear.
A report by the Auditor General in 2009 noted a number of problems related to the fund, including that it was not possible to trace an agreement launching the assistance.
Meusac also did not find guidelines on the administration of the SCH, funded by the annal global vote Meusac allocated Parliament.
When this vote started to be reduced in an effort to curb public expenditure, the the fund's sustainability cropped up and as Meusac's administrative costs increased year to year, its financial vote was reduced.
In 2012, it was reduced by 18 per cent on 2011 and in 2013 by 27 per cent on 2011.
The ministry said that, in 2012, it was not possible for Meusac to issue a call for organisations such as Forum to apply for activities financed by the fund.
So it was not true that these payments stopped by the Labour govenrment but by the previous administration last year.
The ministry noted that when the representatives of civil society within Meusac were informed of this last year, an offer was made for Meusac to help these entities acquire EU funds for their projects.
In this way, they would be able to concentrate their resources on other activities, including those which used to be co-financed by the fund.
When the SCH was launched Malta was not an EU member so these organisations had no opportunity to benefit from EU funds.
Now that Malta was an EU member and one of the country's duties was to curb public expect, it was good that, whenever possible, dpeendence on antional funds was reduced and the mechanismns of EU funds were exploited in a better way.
The ministry noted that, since 2008, Meusac assisted organisations to win 87 projects which ran into more than €6 million. This was besides the close to €11.5 million won for local council projects.
The Government, the ministry said, was committed to strengthen Meusac for more organisation to benefit from EU funds, as to increase its participation in the consultation process on EU laws and policies.