Business Breakfast: Simplified EU funds for Business

Facilitating access to EU funds for local businesses to foster growth and innovation

On June 28, Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta (SEM) and the Ministry responsible for European Funds, organised a business breakfast for business associations and service providers regarding the new €16.5 million EU-funded schemes for businesses.

The aim of this event was to provide an overview of the new schemes for businesses and to give a platform to advisory firms to directly clarify any queries or raise any concerns that they have in relation to these schemes.

The business breakfast kicked off officially with opening remarks by Denise Fiorentino, the CEO of Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta, who highlighted the Agency’s dual role of supporting businesses in applying for EU funds and bridging the gap between beneficiaries and the Managing Authorities to explore ways on how to facilitate access to EU funds.

The Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds, Hon. Chris Bonett also expressed his commitment to simplify the process for accessing EU funds, particularly to encourage small and micro businesses who are discouraged from applying due to the bureaucracy involved. The Parliamentary Secretary noted that a simplified pilot scheme for businesses has shown significant positive results with more than 80% of the applicants being first time applicants.

Following the introductory remarks, Claude Sammut, the Director General of the Measures and Support Division (MSD), presented an overview of the new business schemes. The new schemes are aimed at supporting established businesses and start-ups to digitalise their operations, to enhance productivity through investment for equipment and machinery and to engage consultancy services. Mr Sammut explained how the new schemes differ from the ones launched in previous years and how the process has been simplified to encourage more businesses to apply. During this part, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions directly to Mr Sammut and flag any concerns or issues they have encountered when assisting beneficiaries.

For the second part of this event, representatives from SEM and MSD presented the outcome from the focus groups held with stakeholders in the past months as part of an exercise to simplify the application process for such schemes, so that more enterprises benefit from EU funds to innovate and grow their business. This was an opportunity to showcase how the feedback received with respect to the application form, implementation and support, have been taken onboard by MSD - the Intermediary Body for the Business Enhance Schemes - and have been reflected in the new schemes launched for businesses.

During a final intervention, Jonathan Vassallo, the Permanent Secretary for European Funds, emphasised the importance of keeping a constant open line of communication between the public administration and the private sector to ensure the success of businesses in EU funds.

More information on the new business schemes launched can be found here.