The political debate on the future of EU structural funds post-2013 has kicked off, with the European Commission presenting a proposal for a regulation laying down the provisions for the structural funds 2014-2020, in early October.
According to the text of the draft regulation, it sets out to establish a common set of rules covering all of the EU’s structural financing instruments, namely the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the European Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the future European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
The importance of EU funding for the Maltese economy cannot be underestimated with several local businesses benefitting from financial grants drawn from the EU’s structural funds particularly in the areas of business development, operational upgrading, internationalisation and marketing. Maltese business looks forward to a positive conclusion of what is likely to be a protracted debate at EU level on the future of the EU budget and the consequent allocation of budgetary resources for the diverse EU funds that can be tapped by the private sector.
It is the MBB’s viewpoint that a greater concentration of financial resources should be assigned to small businesses. Over the past years, significant funding has been channelled to the appropriate capacity-building and other strategic capital investments particularly in the environment, transport and waste management sectors.
It inevitably created a constraining budgetary capping for the financial resources set aside for the financing of aid grants managed by Malta Enterprise and the MTA – these funds earmarked for the manufacturing and the tourism industries respectively.
A better targeted allocation of funding is therefore called for as well as consideration to the possibility to ring-fence funds specifically to SMEs across all the EU structural funds programmes through a thematic-tailoring of the eligibility criteria. There are a number of common cross-cutting competitiveness-related challenges afflicting local SMEs irrespective of their sector of operation.
Consequently, funds could be made available specifically for small businesses, concentrated around calls for project proposals dealing with issues such as internationalisation, business expansion, corporate social responsibility and investments in energy-efficient equipment. In such instances funds could be sourced from the ERDF, while the HR training costs for re-skilled workers to manage new digital and environmentally-friendly equipment can be obtained via the ESF.
For more information on EU affairs related to business, one may contact the MBB on 2125 1719 or email info@mbb.org.mt. One may also visit www.mbb.org.mt