Malta was a net beneficiary of EU funds in 2008, getting €27.3 million more than it contributed, according to the latest Financial Report published by the European Commission.

According to the report, Malta received a total of €87.4 million in EU funds last year when its contribution to Brussels stood at €60.1 million. Since accession, Malta remained a net recipient of EU funds, as did all other new member states.

The situation since 2004 looks much better because Malta managed a surplus of almost €300 million, more than €2 for every euro contributed.

Earlier this year, prior to the European Parliament elections, the Labour Party had cast doubts about whether Malta was managing to commit all its EU funds and claimed that over the past two years the country ended up paying more than what it got from the EU. This was denied by the government and the new EU financial report confirms such claims were incorrect.

"Although the benefits of EU membership for a particular member state should not be calculated in terms of money, our statistics show that Malta has received more than twice the amount of money it contributed to the EU since its accession," a Commission official said.

Nonetheless, the surplus money in 2008 does seem little, especially when compared to recent years. However, according to the Commission, it is normal given that a new budget was approved in 2007 and the country would still be filing its projects at this stage, which would be paid out in future years. Malta should end up with higher surpluses in the coming years as the island will be implementing more of the projects earmarked for the 2007-2013 financial period.

Talks in 2005 led to Malta being allocated over €1 billion within the 2007-2013 financial programme as it qualified for the highest amount of EU funding possible under current rules.