Image: Google Street View
The Gozo Ministry sought EU funding to help finance works on 11 rural roads between 2022 and 2023, but it failed to obtain a single cent as all its applications were unsuccessful, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri has confirmed.
Schembri was replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist Party MP Chris Said, who asked for a list of the roads for which the ministry sought funding through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
EAFRD serves as the second pillar of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, with a stated aim of strengthening the social, environmental and economic sustainability of rural areas across the EU.
Projects to improve the infrastructure of rural areas – including, naturally, the development of new roads or the improvement of existing ones – can thus theoretically benefit from EU funding, even if the Gozo Ministry’s own efforts – 10 separate applications concerning 11 rural roads – proved unsuccessful.
The roads the ministry sought EU funding for were listed by Schembri along with the locality they are in, though the list appears to name the wrong locality in the majority of cases.
The below list offers corrections in line with the maps of Malta’s official cartographic body – the Planning Authority – on the assumption that the street names and the outcome of the funding applications are otherwise correct.
- Triq ta’ Għajn Abdul/Triq Wied Junu – Kerċem/San Lawrenz (listed as Nadur)
- Triq ta’ Spiteri – Kerċem (listed as Nadur)
- Triq San Blas – Nadur (listed as San Lawrenz)
- Triq Daħla ta’ Xurdin – Nadur (listed as Għajnsielem)
- Wied tal-Għajjun – Xagħra (listed as Għarb)
- Triq Klula – Kerċem (listed as Għarb)
- Triq tal-Gruwa – Sannat (listed as Żebbuġ)
- Triq il-Ġifna – Kerċem (listed as Żebbuġ)
- Triq tal-Loġġa – Xewkija (listed as Żebbuġ)
- Triq Neigu – Għarb
