It may take at least five more months for the European Commission to lift its suspension of education programmes funding to Malta.
"If we take Cyprus's example, which also passed through the same unfortunate experience two years ago, the suspension was only lifted after a year," Commission sources said.
"Although we don't think it will take Malta a year to put its house in order, and recent developments have shown that the island is now responding quickly to our demands, we still think it will take a while to lift the suspension, at least five more months," the sources said.
The Education Ministry said that, following contacts with other member states, it had found placements for about 140 of the students who would otherwise miss out on the opportunity to study abroad due to the suspension.
The Commission is not committing itself on any target dates for resumption of the funding. Its official spokesman for education and culture said: "The suspension of both Youth in Action and Lifelong Learning Programmes will be lifted once the Commission has reasonable assurance on the management by the Maltese national agency of EU funds for decentralised actions of the programmes and the supervision thereof by the Maltese national authority."
Brussels has already acted on a letter sent by Education Minister Dolores Cristina last week detailing the measures taken so that the programmes may resume as soon as possible.
"The Commission has now issued a letter further detailing all the requirements to be addressed by the Maltese authorities and the national agency. The Commission will also provide a detailed feedback on the additional documentation received recently from the Maltese authorities (including the minister's letter), as soon as their analysis is finalised," the spokesman said.
Funding was suspended for the Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes, administered by the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA) within the Ministry of Education, after warnings were issued to the Maltese authorities on the need to put the management of these programmes on a sounder basis and in line with EU rules.
It is estimated that about €4 million were earmarked for Malta for use this year in projects financed through the programmes. Brussels said it had no other option but to temporarily suspend them after it concluded that the issues it highlighted had been ignored.
The Prime Minister ordered an inquiry into the issue on May 20 and the report was released on Wednesday. It was found that one of the main reasons for the lack of action by Malta was that the officials directly responsible for the day-to-day management of the funds had persistently failed to inform Malta's Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, the EU Secretariat at the Office of the Prime Minister and the Education Minister about the ongoing issue with the Commission.
The inquiry put the blame on three officials at the ministry, including the permanent secretary, saying the situation could have been avoided. The position of the three officials was described as untenable.