‘This EU budget started in Brexit’s shadow and will end in Covid’s shadow’- EP office head
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This EU budget started in the shadow of Brexit and will end in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, European Parliament Office in Malta head Mario Sammut said.
The EU parliament’s webinar on Monday shed light on a number of administrative, legal and political issues related to the EU budget and Malta.
During the webinar, both EPP head of deleation and S&D head of delegation Alfred Sant agreed that proposed tax amendments would be detrimental to Malta. They said Malta would be pushing forward to ensure these amendments would not be implemented.
Metsola noted “the EU is not an ATM” adding that it’s time for the EU to put its money were its mouth is.
She also noted there have been significant development regarding OWN resources- the revenue source of the EU budget. However, she added, one had to ensure amendments did not damage competitiveness of small niche economies like ours. Malta underline that this would be unacceptable since it willhave a disproportionate impact on smaller economies like ours.
Sant argued that discussion at micro level led to decisions being taken at macro level. Issues such as the ongoing crisis in Libya also needed to be addressed, he insisted.
The pandemic strengthened malta’s argument that it wants a special allocation as a member state, Robert Camilleri from the Finance Ministry added. Unlike other counties, it could not rely on internal tourism to help with its economy.
