12 new projects under Territorial Cooperation Programmes launched

At a ceremony celebrating the selection of eight projects under the Interreg Italia-Malta programme and another four under the Interreg Med programme, Dr Aaron Farrugia, parliamentary secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue said that by means of these new projects, the number of projects selected under the Territorial Cooperation programmes so far amounts to 38, with an ERDF monetary value of €10.6m.

Dr Farrugia said that these projects involve various Maltese partners such as ministries, agencies, educational institutes, private entities and NGOs. The projects touch upon an array of thematic areas including waste management, energy efficiency, green growth, innovation, competitive- ness of SMEs, electro-mobility, smart specialisation, water consumption, tourism and environment heritage, maritime spatial planning, biodiversity, beach management, marine protection as well as hazard and tsunami monitoring systems.

The parliamentary secretary noted that the benefit of participating in Territorial Cooperation projects is that we get to learn from our European counterparts and become aware of the best practices, which might then be implemented locally.

Dr Farrugia added that the potential of such programmes with regard to the improvement of national policies and ideas is significant and concluded by thanking the beneficiaries for taking the initiative and leading the way.