Malta will be receiving an additional €1.5 million in Swiss funds after being the first EU member state successfully allocate the money it received four years ago.
These extra funds will go towards to the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies for four years starting from the 2010-2011 academic year.
The academy, established in 1990 following an agreement between Malta and Switzerland, offers advanced degrees in diplomacy with a focus on Mediterranean issues. This money is the result of discussions in 2006 on the distribution of the Swiss Financial Contribution 2007-2013, where it was agreed that a reserve of two million Swiss francs (approximately €1.5 million) would be allocated to the first member state to commit its allocated funds.
This reserve had been agreed after Malta repeatedly contested the "distribution key" - the mechanism used for distributing funds based on various criteria including GDP, population, etc. - as this was disadvantageous to the island.
This decision means that for the period 2007-2012, Malta will benefit from a total of 4,994,000 Swiss francs (approximately €3.7 million) under the Swiss Financial Contribution to the EU. Malta's Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, welcomed this development and said tough negotiations conducted by Malta in 2006 had resulted in a successful outcome.
"It is also a notable achievement that, among all member states, Malta was first past the post in terms of committing its funds under the Swiss Financial Contribution to the EU," he said.
Meanwhile, Malta is contesting the way the European Commission wants to distribute new funds under a similar agreement - the EEA and Norwegian Financial mechanism for 2009-2014. It is claiming it would lose almost €1 million of its entitlement if the Commission persists in using the "wrong" distribution key.
Malta has proposed that the EU should use the same system as that used for the Swiss funds by creating a new reserve to be used by the member states who are first to commit the new funds. However, so far, the Commission has resisted the idea.
Under the current Commission proposal, Malta should be allocated around €1.6 million from the almost €2 billion to be distributed among the 12 new member states together with Spain, Portugal and Greece under this mechanism.
However, Malta and a few other member states are calling for a revision of the distribution mechanism so that more updated data are used.