Updated | MPs protest ‘unnecessary’ Villa Francia restoration

Nationalist MPs Marthese Portelli and Antoine Borg are contesting the use of European Union funds to restore Villa Francia in Lija, the official resident of the Prime Minister.

Although no prime minister has resided at Villa Francia since its expropriation by the State in the 1970s, it was Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who in 2009 restored the stately home to its former glory.

But Portelli and Borg criticised the use of EU funds for the restoration of Villa Francia, claiming there were better priorities for the funds to be spent on, such as health and education projects.

“The difference is that this is the second time around: why invest in it again? If we had unemployment at zero per cent than I would be in favour of restoring Villa Francia, but this is not a priority today,” Portelli told MaltaToday when asked. She said that Malta’s priorities are to improve its competitiveness through investment in research, training, and infrastructure.   

The two MPs said that the Maltese government had not yet concluded the two operational programmes for the EU to scrutinise which projects will be funded under €1.8 billion in EU funds for 2014-2020.

Portelli said that 24 member states had already submitted their programmes, while Joseph Muscat had claimed back on 14 July that the government was in its final stages to present its programme.

“Muscat recently claimed that many member states had not yet presented their programmes, which I contested. The Prime Minister has no idea what is going on with EU funds,” Portelli said.

The MPs went on to say that the previous Nationalist government had submitted the previous operational programme a year and a half before its deadline, and that EU funds under the previous administration had a 91% allocation and absorption rate. They also mentioned that Charlina Vitcheva, Director General for Regional Policy at the European Commission, had praised the way Malta had utilised its EU funds in the past.

Portelli also spoke about how the Opposition had given feedback to the government on how to best allocate the EU funds over the next six years.

“Amongst these proposals, we said that the government should invest in a satellite receiving system, in a place where people suffering from terminal illnesses can receive treatment, and in more equipment for IT laboratories," Portelli said. 

Government reaction

In a reaction, the parliamentary secretariat for EU Funds said that Portelli and Borg have chosen to forget the government’s successes in absorbing of EU funds and preparing the new financial programme.

“The government recently revealed that the previous Nationalist administration had only managed to absorb 33% of the European funds for the 2007-2013 period,” the government said. “This was confirmed by credit-rating agency Moody’s who revealed that only Romania and Bulgaria had a lower EU fund absorption rate than Malta between 2007 and January 2013. However, since March 2013, these figures have doubled to almost 60%, and our target is for them to reach 100% by the end of 2015.”

The government also cited the European Commission as saying that they are convinced that EU funds will help Malta’s economy throughout next year.

“Last week, the European Commission also praised Malta during the launch of the partnership agreement between Malta and the EU for the 2014-2020 financial programme,” the government said. “This will help Malta launch schemes in favour of industry and employability, pro-environment projects, and projects that will strengthen the education, health, and transport sectors.”