Barely a week passes by without reading about "EU funding..." coming for this or that project. While I am writing this letter (on Wednesday, September 15) I can see the heading of a report in The Times which reads: "EU funds to reconstruct Victoria-San Lawrenz road". Such headings are always in very bold letters too!

I have already had occasion to point out that all this "EU funding" is a myth, since it is only money that Malta is already paying to the EU in one form or another (percentage of VAT, common external tariff, etc.) coming back to us and only, in some cases, if we apply for such funds in time.

A British correspondent, Derek Bennett (The Sunday Times, August 8), also mentioned this subject when replying to another correspondent, Peter Prictoe. Mr Bennett literally hit the nail on the head when he described "EU funding" to Britain as "just a little of the UK's own money handed back with a whole array of strings attached".

What must be stressed - and what your readers are invited to use their own brains to understand and not let politicians think for them as they may have a conflict of interest where Malta's membership of the EU is concerned - is that the money we are paying to Brussels (and to the UK for its rebate from the EU!) have no strings whatsoever.

But to get some of it back, we have to "comply with the EU's rules on such funding, as it decides on the projects, materials and all aspects of the projects..." as Mr Bennet rightly emphasised.

I am amazed that today no member of parliament ever stands up in the House and asks for a breakdown of the money or "Malta funds" which we are already paying to the EU. And how much of that money we expect to receive back from the EU.

As well as the amount of millions of liri which the government has already forked out to get Malta into the EU and how much it is costing the government as current and expected future expenditure to keep in place all the structures it had to set up as a direct result of EU membership - including the purchase, renovation and staffing of Dar Malta in Brussels. Besides the many other embassies it has already opened and intends to open in member states.

So when you next hear or read about "EU funding", why not grab the phone and ask your local MP to table a parliamentary question requesting the information I have mentioned above?

If the honourable gentleman or lady finds some excuse to extricate himself/herself from a potentially embarrassing political situation, then you will know that the real reason is because those politicians know that if the truth is said, EU membership will be shown to be the most unsustainable problem we have.

More so when Malta is already targeted to lose its right to Structural Funds from the EU (our own money, remember!), certainly from 2013, and getting less and less from 2006!