Contacts are ongoing with the European Commission to establish a margin of flexibility with Comenius and Grundtvig actions and Erasmus intensive training courses under the Lifelong Learning Programme, the Education Ministry said.

It said in a statement that this week, the European Union Programmes Agency will be communicating directly with the beneficiaries of projects that could go ahead as planned.

Malta’s participation in the EU’s Youth in Action and Lifelong Learning programmes was suspended earlier this year.

The ministry said that as has been agreed during a meeting between Education Minister Dolores Cristina, and the European Commissioner for Education Androulla Vassiliou, a technical meeting was held to agree on the actions required for the lifting of the suspension.

Discussions were held on the implementation of the actions required to address the Commission’s observations and it was agreed that information on the expected timeframe and deliverables in relation to the implementation of the critical observations are sent to the Commission by Monday.

Information on the expected timeframe and deliverables in relation to the implementation of the other observations are to be sent by Friday.

If the desired progress is registered, the Commission should send a mission to Malta in September.

The ministry said that participation of Maltese organisations and individuals in the centralised actions of the Youth in Action programme were not affected by the suspension and Maltese organisations and individuals could apply, in conjunction with other national agencies.

In the case of the Youth in Action programme, projects could go ahead as planned in the case of those applicants that had been formally notified before May 7 and whose project had been selected under the decentralised 2010 call.