Applications for participation in EU funded projects were multiplying each month, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.

Speaking at a conference for youths organised by the EU Programmes Agency, the Prime Minister said that there were 529 training, exchange and study programmes in which 9,300 youths had taken part.

There were 196 exchange and partnership projects at primary school level and 116 exchange programmes such as Erasmus and Leonardo.

1,600 university students and lecturers took part in Erasmus and around 2,000 took part in Leonardo and 3,600 took part in voluntary work programmes.

Dr Gonzi said that Meusac had assisted 37 organisations to apply for participation in projects worth €6.3 million in EU funding and another 70 applications were being processed.

All these projects were a clear example of how the EU had gone closer to villages and towns and that these small projects were of great importance because they brought about change at grassroot levels.