Author: SME Chamber

Eco
Contribution introduced in September 2004 should have been a stepping stone
towards instigating the extended producer responsibility. Today it has become
the business community's worst nightmare. It is a shame that at least two
Compliance Schemes are in place and cannot implement the conditions of their
permit in relation to at least one Directive, WEEE, because of Eco
Contribution.

As we have said many times in
the past, the business community should never pay double for a service. In this
case shouldering a responsibility for an environmental obligation should never
require a double payment. Government has since 2004 been receiving funds from
many companies and in the meantime expecting these companies to oblige to Legal
Notice 63 of 2007. It is just not acceptable under any circumstance whatsoever.

The former administration did
its very best to make sure it kept raking in funds with the blatant excuse that
Compliance Schemes operating other waste streams need to learn how to walk
before they start running. Absolutely absurd. The only real reason was that
funds were never hypothecated for the environment. They were used for any thing
else but that, and that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We are informed that a
revision of the Eco Contribution is currently in vigore and will soon be
finalised. We hope it will be finished before the Budget comes to Parliament.
We hope the revision just says that Eco Contribution legislation will be
superseded once and for all by EU Directives, actually implemented and not just
transposed. The implementation of the WEEE Directive in Malta is well over six years
overdue, taking also a derogation into consideration. Those who were
responsible for this debacle should respond to the Maltese Community in
general. They have failed in implementing what has been implemented across all
other Member States ages ago..  They
should be ashamed of themselves and should shoulder the political responsibility.

Now that Malta's EU
Commissioner will be responsible for Environment and Fisheries we need to be
stalwarts with respect to the Environment. We need to be proactive not
followers or even worse, do nothing at all.. Following was the past, being
proactive is the future. We need to be able to get our act together today
before tomorrow unless we prefer facing infringements from the European
Commission.

One issue is a certainty, the
business community will never fiscally shoulder any infringement penalty for
this Directive. Now is the time to take the bull by the horns. There is still a
lot of work to be done to implement WEEE. We need to start, we need to finish,
we need to get the ball rolling.

It is after all a part of the
National Waste Management Plan approved by Cabinet earlier this year. A
European Directive is a European Directive. We either play ball or bear the
consequences. This time around the Business Community is no walk over. We will
not shoulder infringements. We cannot also take on half measures. In the
beehive someone recently came up with the
absurd idea that those items currently falling under the WEEE Directive but not
subject to Eco Contribution will now have Eco Contribution imposed thus meaning
Eco Contribution will now be spread over hundreds or thousands of items that
are not currently liable to Eco Contribution with the lame excuse that the
current products falling under the current legislation Schedule would be
decreased as the new items introduced would take a  part 
burden thus making sure that across the Board many would now fall within
the parameters of Eco Contribution.

This is not
acceptable. The Business
Community will not accept such a decision. The only acceptable decision is the
right one, abolish Eco Contribution and place the Maltese Business Community on
line with other EU counterparts in other EU Member states, implement the WEEE
Directive as revised and according to the Legal Notice issued earlier this
year. It is already unfair that in respect to the Packaging Waste Directive
that because one is exempt from Eco Tax a producer has higher benchmarks to
reach then EU producers in the same sector. In time this will also need to
change. We are, yes as a Business community, albeit smaller in size in all
proportions, so obliging Maltese Producers to reach a 70% overall collection
rate according to LN 84 of 2010 is already ridiculous, the next thorn would be
extending Eco Contribution instead of abolishing it once and for all!

The WEE
Directive LN 204 of 2014

The Business Community will still
find a hard task coming to terms with this piece of legislation which is by far
extremely onerous. But the Business Community has the guts to call a spade a
spade and wake up to the challenges. What we cannot accept is a double
challenge or a double payment for one service.

God forbids if one fine day the EU
had to place fines on Malta for not implementing the WEEE Directive to date!
What next, would Government take on the Business Community to pay the fine or
would they have the real guts to say that the Business Community has paid Eco
Contribution and so they need not pay again.

Decisions need to be taken now before
the budget plunge. Failure to take the bull by the horns now would only place
our EU Commissioner under duress from
Day One.

As always there is a light at the end
of the tunnel, we just wonder how long it takes a Government to see the light!
We have to however state that the past administration  has lived in darkness over this issue! A
total shambles, excuse after excuse as to why Eco Contribution was always left
the way it is! But enough time has passed now and the Government of the day
cannot continue to point fingers at the past. We are living today and we need
to wake up to stark realities.

One budget gone by during this
administration is already one too many. Coming budget needs to have action on
this issue and not small talk.

Article by
Joe Attard CEO of Green MT

As a member of
the MEUSAC Core Group GRTU President Paul Abela has called on the President,
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, at The Palace in Valletta and had an exchange of
views on MEUSAC's role as well as on various issues currently on the EU agenda.

One-stop-shop
for agricultural innovation in Europe: The new website of the European
Innovation partnership on Agriculture (EIP AGRI) is online. The website is a
one-stop-shop for sharing information on projects, research needs, funding
opportunities etc. and to finding partners to develop and implement innovative
ideas for agriculture. Link:
http://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en

Its
vertical Work Packages address the needs for comparable data, clear guidelines
and the development of a good practice tool-kit:

1. Monitoring: Member States will be mobilised to take-up of common survey methodology
to obtain comparable data for monitoring progress in reducing alcohol related
harm at national and EU level and for benchmarking national developments
against wider trends.

2. Guidelines: A common ground
in communication on alcohol related harm will be widened, providing a guidance
document for policy makers on the scientific basis and policy implications of
low risk drinking guidelines.

3. Tool-Kit: A Tool-Kit of
good practice approaches in information dissemination will be developed, taking
into account effectiveness, transferability, relevance, costs and usefulness.

For more
information: http://www.rarha.eu/

‘EXPLORE
European Structural and Investment Funds' will be the fifth of a series of six
information sessions, each targeting a
different thematic area. This session will be promoting EU funding programmes
related to European Structural and Investment Funds.

All public sector officials,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and local councils interested
in any project or initiative related
to the sector, are invited to this session.

The session will be addressed by Dr Ian Borg, Parliamentary Secretary for
the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, and will include a number of presentations
by various Managing Authorities and National Contact Points responsible for
different funds under the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.

EXPLORE | European
Structural and Investment Funds

Date: Thursday, October 2, 2014  |  Time: 9.30 hrs –
12:00 hrs

Venue: The Waterfront Hotel, Gżira

Participants will also have the
opportunity to involve themselves in networking with representatives of
Managing Authorities and National Contact Points who will be present to answer
queries on a one-to-one basis. 

Should you be interested in taking
part, and reply on by not later than Monday, September 29, 2014.

EXPLORE | Environment

Date: Tuesday,
October 7, 2014  |  Time: 16.30 hrs – 19:00 hrs

Venue: The
Waterfront Hotel, Gżira

‘EXPLORE Environment' will be the last of a series
of six information sessions, each targeting a
different thematic area. This session will be promoting EU funding programmes
related to the environment.

All public sector officials,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and local councils interested
in any project or initiative related
to the sector, are invited to this session.

The session will include a number of
presentations by various Managing Authorities and National Contact Points
responsible for different funds under the Multiannual Financial Framework
2014-2020.

Participants will also have the
opportunity to involve themselves in networking with representatives of
Managing Authorities and National Contact Points who will be present to answer
queries on a one-to-one basis. 

Should you be
interested in taking part, kindly register on by not later than Thursday, October 2, 2014.

In a
joint statement ahead of the hearings of the commissioners-designated,
BUSINESSEUROPE, EUROCHAMBRES, EuroCommerce and UEAPME demand that the European
Union prioritizes competitiveness in any future policy initiative.

The
Occupational Health and Safety Authority has this week has issued a press
release in response to the photos being posted by the media showing unsafe work
practices.

Media and members of the general public are being urged to
immediately inform OHSA of any unsafe work practices in order to take the
necessary measures so as to safeguard the health and safety of persons involved
in the work activity, instead of leaving the same workers working in an unsafe
manner until OHSA takes the necessary action.

Whilst OHSA understands the interests of media and civic minded
persons in wanting to raise issues of unsafe work practices, such approach will
not reach the effectiveness desired if OHSA is not immediately informed. Most
of the time, photos are published hours and even days after the occurrence of
the unsafe work practice thus leaving the same person being exposed to serious
and imminent danger. OHSA adopts a confidentiality complaint reporting
procedure in order to secure the confidentiality of the complainant.

Occupational health and safety is a complex subject which
requires the cooperation of stakeholders and duty holders and it can only be
improved through a self-regulating process where all duty holders recognize
that it is in their best interest to adhere to their duties imposed by law.

In terms of the OHSA Act XXVII of 2000 and other subsidiary
regulations, employers have various legal obligations that must be fulfilled in
order to manage health and safety at the place of work. Employers have the general
duty of ensuring the health and safety at all times of all persons who may be
affected by the work being carried out for such employers. This duty is
considered to be wide in its scope and encompasses a series of other
obligations intended to fulfil such general duty.

Employers must have in place appropriate arrangements for the
effective planning, organization, control, monitoring and review of the
preventive and protective measures. The approach to be taken by employers must
be based on a well-defined management system based on prevention in particular
through the provision of risk assessments and implementation of control
measures based on the general principles of prevention laid down in the OHSA
Act. The general principles of prevention are set out in descending order of
preference with the best approach being the adequate control of risk. These
principles are intended to secure the best approach to address hazards and
risks which may be present in the place of work.

On the other hand, workers have also a number of duties that must
be fulfilled in order to ensure a safer and healthier workplace. Workers have
the duty to cooperate with their employer in matters pertaining to health and
safety and to safeguard their own health and safety and that of other who may
be affected by their actions.

With regards to construction work activities, OHSA urges all duty
holders to adopt a risk prevention approach from the beginning. This can be
only achieved if all duty holders in particular the client, contractors,
project supervisors and workers themselves adopt a collective approach towards
the implementation of control measures intended to prevent accidents at the
place of work.

Last week GRTU Deputy President
Philip Fenech and President of the tourism and hospitality section met with the
Acting Commissioner of Police Ray Zammit to discuss long-term improvements of
security management in the St. Julians and Paceville area.

This year's
World Tourism Day seeks to celebrate the theme of Tourism and Community
Development. This theme focuses on the ability of tourism to empower people and
provide them with skills to achieve change in their local communities.

In its 2015 Budget proposals
GRTU is calling for the generation of increased economic activity in our
localities. With our country's small size it makes all the more sense to
maximise our space potential and build on the concept of community tourism.
Alternative forms of accommodation should be encouraged and incentivised. The
popularity of staying in boutique hotels, small guest houses, hostels and even
host families has soared drastically in recent years and Malta should be able
to cater for such a demand. It is still tourism of high quality and value added
but whose priority is the authenticity of the experience. There is in fact
indeed a demand by tourists to experience countries away from the traditionally
tourist concentrated areas.

The value added in the
utilization of available resources that could easily materialise with the right
incentives. The ripple effect this would have on our economy as a whole could
be remarkable. Cafés, Restaurants and retailers will benefit if tourists
accommodation spreads from the traditional tourists areas to the localities.
The package of incentives should focus on facilitating access to finance, which
includes grants, tax credits and advantageous loans. Licensing and standards
should also reflect this shift.

This year's World Tourism Day
theme will highlight the potential of tourism to promote opportunities for communities
around the world, as well as the role that community engagement has in
advancing sustainable tourism development.

World Tourism Day is
celebrated every year on the 27 of September. It is a global celebration that
highlights tourism's social, cultural, political and economic value.