The process of consultation on the operational programmes entered into a new phase this morning when Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, Dr. Ian Borg addressed a public consultation meeting at the MCC, in Valletta.

During the meeting, Dr. Borg stressed on the importance to keep on investing in our human resource. In actual fact, Dr. Borg explained that “as regards the new programme for the European Social Fund 2014-20, €132 million will be allocated precisely to strengthen one of our best resources – human resource.”

The next consultation meeting will be taking place next Monday, the 2nd of June at the Grand Hotel in Mgarr, Gozo.

Whilst explaining the identified priorities, Dr. Borg reiterated this Governments’ commitment to allocate such funds towards more investment that will see employability incentives, social inclusion, education, continuous training and life-long learning as well as administrative capacity in the public service.

Dr. Borg encouraged those present to step forward with proposals and projects which he said were sure to aid the Government reach the set targets as well as boost up human resource and their own subsequent productivity.

This process of consultation was initiated earlier this month when the Government and opposition met to discuss and agree upon the framework of these operational programmes. Later on, this framework was presented to all social partners who were in agreement on the chosen priorities.

At the time, the figure of €717 million that makes up the Cohesion Fund and the European Regional Development Fund was broken down amongst different priorities.

These funds will be distributed in fact amongst 11 priorities that include investment in favour of research and innovation (€72 million), ICT (€38 million), SMEs (€53 million), generation of cleaner energy (€57 million) and environment (€200 million).

Various representatives of NGOs, Government entities and general public attended this morning’s session. Dr. Borg emphasised on the contribution of the general public so that schemes aimed at various industries that will eventually be launched at a later stage this same year will reflect the exact needs of this sector.

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