Malta Confident Of Reaching Agreement Over EU Financing Package

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

28 November 2002

Malta received details of its EU financing package during a meeting with the EU Presidency on Tuesday, according to chief negotiator, Richard Cachia Caruana.

Speaking to reporters following receipt of the 'comprehensive' package, which was initially expected have been presented by the end of last week according to reports, Mr Cachia Caruana described it as 'very technical', but declined to give detail of its contents until the Maltese government has studied the proposals carefully.

'The financial package has to be fair and equitable if the negotiations are to be concluded successfully. It has to reflect that Malta is at a particular stage of development, and we therefore need funds to enable us to speed up our economic development,' he explained.

According to the Times of Malta, the government has been given until the beginning of next week to issue its reactions to the package.

'The EU has made it clear that the package is not a fait accompli, and that there is still some limited space to manoeuvre,' it reported.

The newspaper also revealed that Mr Cachia Caruana is set to travel to Copenhagen, accompanied by Foreign Minister, Joe Borg for a meeting with the Danish Foreign Minister over pending issues on Friday. These include Malta's request to retain a zero VAT rate on food and medicines post-accession.

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