Malta’s contribution to Greece will be more than €74 million
Charlot Zahra
Although Finance Minster Tonio Fenech had originally said that the total sum of the loan to Greece would not exceed €27 million, it now transpires that Malta’s entire share of Malta’s contribution to the Greek loan will now exceed the €74 million mark, €47 million more than originally announced by Fenech a week and a half ago.
A European Commission spokesperson yesterday confirmed to MaltaToday that Malta’s entire share under the agreement reached between the Eurozone Member States and the IMF early on Saturday morning was €74,543,025.89.
Sources close to the deal told MaltaToday that the €27 million was only the first tranche of the payment, not the entire sum.
The EC spokesperson revealed that Malta’s payment under the assistance agreement for Greece was divided into 13 tranches.
“The first tranche is due next week,” the EC spokesperson told MaltaToday.
She explained that the remaining 12 tranches of the total sum “will be paid as from Quarter 3 of this year on a quarterly basis”, that is, every three months.
Speaking to sister paper Illum on 2 May, a spokesperson for Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had confirmed that Malta’s contribution to the Greece rescue package would amount to €27 million.
“The indications are that Malta would be expected to loan about €27 million if the final package reaches a maximum of €30 billion,” a spokesperson for Fenech had claimed one-and-a-half weeks ago.
Asked by Illum then to specify whether the financial assistance to Greece was going to be in cash or in bank guarantees, the Ministry spokesperson had explained how “this assistance will be in the form of a loan with commercial interest rates”
“Hence the Maltese Government would not be shouldering burdens that are not its own,” the Ministry spokesperson had told Illum.
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