Author: SME Chamber

Sustainable Transnational Tourism Products 2014 – A call for application has been opened for projects on the
topic of "Diversifying the EU Tourism Offer and Products –
Sustainable Transnational Tourism Products 2014". This is a call
issued and managed directly from Brussels and is one of the very few calls in
support of tourism.

Proposals should be presented by consortia of minimum 5 legal
entities, covering at least 4 EU Member States. 
These proposals must aim at promoting sustainable transnational tourism
products in sport or wellness activities in relation to one of the following
types of tourism: coastal or maritime or mountain or rural tourism.

The projects
should support the following aspects:

One of the
objectives of this call is to support projects that encourage the participation
of SMEs and create a framework favourable to SMEs' cooperation.

Tourism SMEs on
their own are also eligible to participate, provided that they are operating in
the following fields:

In fact, the
project consortium should include at least 2 such SMEs.

The EU budget
of the call is EUR 1,000,000 and there are 5 projects expected to be funded
(max. EUR 250,000 per project, at a 75% co-financing rate from EU).

The
deadline for this proposal is 7th October 2014

During
the ICT Proposers' Day 2014, the session "Put innovation at the core of
your proposal" will be addressing the explicit references to innovation
across all three H2020 evaluation criteria, while also underlining the
importance of the "Expected Impacts statements" in the Work
Programme.

ICT
Proposers' Day 2014 it is an event organised by the European Commission,
specifically dedicated to networking and promoting research and innovation in
the field of Information and Communication Technologies. The event will focus
on networking in preparation for next year's forthcoming calls under the
Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2015.

The
event, which is free of charge, offers an exceptional occasion to build quality
partnerships through, face to face meetings, as it will connect academia,
research institutes, industrial stakeholders, SMEs and government actors from
all over Europe. The registration to attend the event is now open. http://bit.ly/1ynj0K2

Further useful information:

Networking at
ICT Proposers' Day 2014: http://bit.ly/1rS04g7

ICT Innovation in Horizon 2020:http://bit.ly/1lZCl0X

Following the
successful Mission for Green Growth to China of Vice-President Antonio Tajani
and Commissioner Potočnik in July 2013, Director-General of Enterprise and
Industry DG Daniel Calleja will lead a technical Mission for Growth to Chengdu
in October this year.

The aim
of the Mission is to meet with high level political representatives, key
industry leaders, and local entrepreneurs to confirm the strong political
relationship between the EU and China and to strengthen our co-operation in
strategic fields.

Director-General
Mr. Daniel Calleja Crespo will be accompanied by a delegation of
representatives of business associations and entrepreneurs to discuss with
Chinese politicians and entrepreneurs how to foster European industrial
cooperation. This visit will also have the objectives to:

The following
sectors of the business delegation have been identified according to the
specific interests of European and Chinese industries:

The Mission
will take place in conjunction with the EU-China
Business and Technology Cooperation Fair, one of the largest international platforms for
investment, trade and technology cooperation in the region. In fact the fair is
expected to gather 800 to 1000 representatives of SMEs, clusters, business
associations, R&D institutions and government bodies.  The EU-China
Business & Technology Cooperation Fair is organized by the EU Project
Innovation Centre (EUPIC), member of the Enterprise Europe Network responsible
for West China.  Further info on the fair available on event website: www.eu-china.org.cn

To register for
the Mission for Growth to China, visit the event website:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/initiatives/mission-growth/missions-for-growth/daniel-calleja/asia/china/index_en.htm

To register for the B2B matchmaking event, visit: https://www.b2match.eu/ninth-eu-china-cooperation-fair

Although the
safety of tourism accommodation services is the competence of Member States,
the presence of a strong cross-border dimension in this type of service
suggests a reflection on their quality and safety levels across Member States.

Consumers should indeed expect to be able to purchase tourism accommodation
services with confidence for their own safety regardless of their choice of
accommodation or destination within the EU.

The objective
of this consultation is to gather input and quantifiable evidence from all
relevant parties with an aim to evaluate fundamental aspects related to tourism
accommodation safety: whether the existing instruments and their implementation
throughout the EU are adequate and sufficient by measuring the nature and
extent of the safety risks and their potential link to flaws or gaps in the
current legislative framework, and to what extent they have an impact on the
provision of such services across borders as well as on SMEs and vulnerable
consumers, in order to make a clear distinction of what objectives are best met
at which level.

For further information on
this consultation, kindly visit:

 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/dgs_consultations/ca/consultation_20141130_tourism_en.htm

The consultation is open till 30th November 2014.

Customs authorities detain nearly 36 million fake
goods at EU borders in 2013 – Customs authorities in the EU detained almost 36 million items suspected
of violating intellectual property rights (IPR) in 2013, according to the
Commission's annual report on customs actions to enforce IPR.

Although this is
less than previous years, the value of the intercepted goods still represents
more than € 760 million. The report also gives statistics on the type,
provenance and transport method of counterfeit products detained at the EU's
external borders.

For the full article, kindly visit:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-890_en.htm

Single Euro
Payments Area to bring easier payments and transfers in
euro area from 1 August – The Single Euro Payments
Area (SEPA) creates a true European Single Market for retail payments in euro
where and transfers, direct debits and payments between Member States are as
easy and fast as the equivalent domestic transactions.

It will become
operational in all euro zone countries on 1st August 2014. It will also apply
to euro-denominated transactions in non-euro zone countries from 30th October
2016. SEPA will greatly facilitate euro payments for citizens and businesses
and increase competition between banks.

For further information,
kindly visit: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-502_en.htm

The Malta-EU
Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC), together with the Malta Competition and
Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA), have this week organised an information
session on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 98/2013 on the marketing
and use of explosives precursors.

The information session on the ‘Regulation (EU) No 98/2013 on the
marketing and use of explosives precursors', focused to ban the sale to the
general public of three chemical precursors (Annex 1 of the Regulation) to
homemade explosives above specified concentrations.

These chemicals include:

Member States can decide to allow purchase of these chemicals above the
concentrations on presentation of a licence or registration of personal
details. Retailers and wholesalers must ensure that any restricted product is
labelled as per guidance to be developed by the European Commission. Retailers
must also monitor transactions of these and a further eight chemicals (Annex 2
of the regulation) for suspicious activity at any concentration great enough
that the substance

Further information can be found:
http://www.meusac.gov.mt/eventdetails?ed=171

GRTU Deputy
President Philip Fenech has this week participated a news conference in
Paceville, organised by Transport Malta during which an awareness campaign to
keep public places clean and tidy was launched.

During
the conference, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis stated that tourism levels
this year were expected to exceed 1.6 million arrivals. August would be the
peak month with 220,000 tourists expected to visit the island. Since a large
arrival of tourists needs a better infrastructure and for this reason €1.5
million were being invested in the cleansing sector to be used for the purchase
of new equipment and more litter bins in tourist areas.

Mr Joe
Mizzi remarked that, last year, a number of zones which needed to be cleaned up
more often were identified. To cater for the demand, 70 employees were engaged
with the cleansing section and €300,000 were invested in new equipment. Another
€100,000 was spent on the installation of more than 500 waste bins. They will
be emptied twice daily and washed at least once a week.

Philip Fenech stated that this
initiative is a positive ongoing process that must be extended with continuous
education. It is also positive that children are being targeted specifically as
this is the target group which one should invest in. It is beneficial that this
campaign was initiated within tourists centres that will be visited by a high
number of tourists during peak season. However it is important that this
campaign is maintained but not only during peak seasons but all year around.

GRTU would like to express its disappointment with the
announcement made by the Ministry for Education and Employment last Saturday,
on the complete abandon of the Smart Card Scheme.

The Ministry's concern with the Scheme is legitimate
as GRTU has also reviewed the report of the National Audit Office and it indeed
confirmed the problems we were well aware of. GRTU in fact had outlined a
number of shortcomings and insisted that reviews were necessary but deciding to
do away with the system as a whole defeats the purpose of the grant itself.

GRTU represents retailers, partners in the smart card
scheme, and our concerns have been made public throughout the period the scheme
was operational up till last year's Budget proposals where we argued against
the unfair percentage fee charged on all transactions by the company
administrating it as opposed to a flat rate transaction fee. Notwithstanding
this, GRTU was in no way consulted on the foreseen abolition of the Scheme.

We feel that the new system, as communicated last
Saturday, can only increase instances of abuse. It lacks any kind of dissuasion
or incentive for students to invest all the grant in items targeted at
enhancing the students' education. GRTU had insisted on the creation of a
simple updatable database of items which a student would be allowed to purchase
in relation to the programme of studies s/he would be following, similar to the
list of books required. Unfortunately students might now be more inclined to
spend the least possible amount of funds on their educational needs.

Amongst other things, the National Audit Office
outlined that students spent part of their funds mostly on sportswear and
fitness equipment, mobile top-ups, and other non-educational items but it also
explained how the system could be improved including a recommendation to
re-issue the tender. We will therefore be moving from a situation where we know
how much money is being spent and on what to a situation where everything is a
mystery. The new system will not keep track on what students spend the money on
as so far no real safeguards addressing this have been mentioned. We feel tax
payer's money deserve to be better accounted for.

In addition the new system will also continue to
aggravate the situation we have with the evasion of Eco-Contribution when
purchases are made online. GRTU is in no way against buying online as long as
there is a level playing field where everyone competes fairly. Most students at
some point or another buy laptops and other electronic devices such as
notebooks, that are subject to Eco-Tax, a Maltese tax which is so far only
enforced when purchases are made locally.

GRTU will be calling on Hon Bartolo to meet with
urgency to discuss the issue. GRTU feels that alternative solutions should be
sought and that with some goodwill and consultation we can introduce an
improved system that is effective, efficient and accountable.