MHRA ‘positive’ about EU funding opportunities

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has accused a report in the Malta Independent of misleading tourism operators and creating unnecessary concerns about funding.

The MHRA has over the past months actively participated in consultation meetings organised by the Parliamentary Secretariat for EU Funds, in particular about Malta's partnership agreement with the European Commission.

"MHRA is currently working closely with the secretariat and its respective departments and had various meetings on how to best facilitate access to centralised and horizontal EU funds for the local tourism industry," MHRA president Paul Bugeja said.

"From information made available to us, there is no cause for alarm as was implied through the said reports that the hotel industry will lose on EU funds due to any reason known to the association."

MHRA is informed by the Malta Business Bureau and the parliamentary secretariat for EU funds that all 28 EU countries currently find themselves in a similar position and following formal submission of the partnership agreement and the eventual launching of operational programmes, specific calls will be issued by the end of current calendar year.

In the meantime, in order to mitigate and to bridge the gap caused by European Commission timeframes which were imposed on all EU countries, MHRA positively notes that a number of financial instruments coming from the previous programming period have been topped up so that funding opportunities have remained open.