Author: SME Chamber

What is  Horizon 2020? Horizon
2020 is the EU Framework programme for research and innovation. It is the
financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship
initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.

Horizon
2020 will run from 2014 to 2020, with circa €80 billion budgeted for its 7
years duration. This new programme aims to contribute to the creation of growth
and jobs in Europe in response to the economic crisis and is expected to
address peoples' concerns about their livelihoods, safety and environment. In
turn, it will strengthen the EU's global position in research, innovation and
technology.

Horizon
2020 combines three separate programmes:

1. The Research Framework Programme (FP)

2. Innovation-related aspects of the
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)

3. The European Institute of Innovation
and Technology (EIT)

Horizon 2020 will be composed of three main pillars with mutually
reinforcing priorities which have clear EU added value.

These are:

Excellent Science

Societal
Challenge

Industrial
Leadership

Why should you participate in Horizon 2020?

Horizon 2020
provides a unique opportunity to share knowledge, experience and facilities
across Europe.

It finances your research idea

It increases
your international networks and contacts, thus creating synergies and learning
from international arena of other excellent partners

It enables
research institutions to gain a competitive edge through translational knowledge

It offers
researchers the opportunity to tackle global research challenges

It offers
individual researchers the chance to take advantage of development
opportunities

It enables you
to widen your field of expertise, which gives you access to new technologies

It helps you
get your first pick at licensing patents since all knowledge generated by you
during the project is yours!

For further
information on horizon 2020, visit:

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/

The European
Union provides funding and grants for a broad range of projects and programmes
covering areas such as education, health, consumer protection, environmental
protection, rural and regional developments and humanitarian aid.

EU
funding is complex, since there are many different types of programmes managed
by different bodies. Over 76% of the EU budget is managed by the member
countries. This includes structural funds – which finance regional policy,
social and training programmes, as well as agriculture (including support for
farmers). LIFE, on the other hand, is managed directly by the European
Commission and its Agency for SMEs (EASME).

LIFE has
a well-defined focus on addressing the specific needs relating to the
environment and climate action. Nevertheless, given the interrelationship
between the environment, climate action and other policy areas, there is still
a certain overlap in scope between LIFE and other RU financing programmes. In
particular, applicants may hesitate between making a submission to life or the
Horizon 2020 programme. Applicants may also find it difficult to distinguish
between the various components of new LIFE 2014-2020 programme.

Therefore
the following aims to highlight some of the key elements of LIFE, and of some
of its components, in order to help applicants identify the most suitable
potential source of funding for their project proposals.

The LIFE
programme is divided into two sub-programmes. These priority areas include a
LIFE sub-programme for Environment and a LIFE sub-programme for Climate Action.
A application must be submitted under a ‘priority area' in one of these
sub-programmes.

General common features of the sub-programmes

Stakeholders
may include private companies (mainly SMEs), NGOs, and public administration
active in the field of environment and climate protection

The application must emphasis
geographical scope of interventions and origin of beneficiaries

Emphasis on transferability and long
tem sustainability of the project results

Projects must not focus on research

It must not focus on large
infrastructure nor rural or regional development (agricultural, structural
funds)

There will be support and monitoring
from EASME or Commission and external monitoring team

Funding co-financing rates

Traditional Nature and Biodiversity
projects received 60% co-financing but 75% for projects targeting priority
habitats and species

Integrated projects, preparatory projects
and technical assistance projects benefit from 60% co-financing

All other projects i.e., traditional
projects under the sub-programme of Climate Action and traditional projects
under priorities Environment and Resources Efficiency and Environment Governance
and Information projects in the sub-programme for environment

60% co-financing during multiannual
work programme (2014-2017)

55% co-financing during multiannual
work programme (2014-2017)

Before you
submit an application, it is important to keep the following points in mind:

Identify the environmental problem
you wish to address

Determine whether LIFE is the right
type of funding for your project

Check whether your project fully fits
the priority project topic, or will receive fewer points

Read the documentation

Decide the scope of the project

Put together a project team

Carry out a project development
exercise

Remember that the selection procedure
of LIFE is a very tough, thorough and detailed one which can be time consuming

Indicative schedule

03rd September 2014: Publication of call

15th October 2014: Deadline of submitting proposals

February 2015: Notification of
results

February/ March 2015: Revision and verification period

Closure of the
selection round and dispatch of grant agreements to successful applicants April 2015

For further
information on the programme, visit:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/

Directive 2012/17/EU on the
interconnection of business registers entered into force on 7 July 2012.
Member States have had two years to adapt their national laws to introduce the
first set of provisions in the Directive, including a new obligation on
business registers to make available documentation submitted by limited
liability companies normally within 21 days of receipt.

The European Commission published a
questionnaire which aims at providing it with experience-based evidence of the
remaining obstacles to a fully functioning Single Market for services. It
targets all companies, especially SMEs, which provide services cross-border,
have established a business in another Member State, have purchased
cross-border services, or have tried to do so but have failed for different
reasons.

This includes activities carried out online. It is also an invitation
of recipient of such services, consumers or other business, to provide
feedback.

The questionnaire includes the
following sections, which should only be filled in if they are relevant for the
respondent dependent on his case

1. Information
about the respondent

2. General
questions to respondents doing business in or buying services from another EU
country

3. Specific
questions to respondents doing business in another EU country

4. Specific
questions to respondents not doing business or buying services in another EU
country

5. Specific
questions to respondents buying services from another EU country

The questionnaire will also serve as
a basis for discussions in local stakeholder workshops to be organised in the
Member States in the context of the Single Market Forum 2014/2015. Such
workshops will take place in autumn 2014.

The
questionnaire can be directly accessed through the following link:

http://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/internal-market-services-businesses?surveylanguage=en

GRTU Deputy President and Tourism Leisure and Hospitality
Section President Philip Fenech this week met with Mr Ramon Deguara, Head of Cleansing,
and his team and together walked around the Paceville area and spoke to a
number of entrepreneurs and identified specific areas were more attention was
needed. They identified places where litter bins could be utilized and also
agreed on cleansing logistics for the better management of the area.

The Minister for Tourism Edward Zammit Lewis appointed a
Consultation Committee made up of different industry representatives that can
contribute achieving a revised Tourism Policy that addresses our country's
concerns, opportunities and today's realities. The policy would then be
followed up by an implementation plan by MTA with the support of interested
parties and industry.

Following the press conference the first Committee
meeting was held which was attended by GRTU Deputy President and Vice President
Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, Philip Fenech. GRTU's first reaction is that
it is important to start analyzing the last Tourism Policy Document to build on
its strengths and weaknesses.

It is essential that Malta fine tunes its marketing
mix and builds on a strategy of broader distributed occupancy rate. Malta must
also be innovative in creating other niche markets that give higher value added
and that have not been discovered yet or have potential in so doing. Containing
those segments that have reached saturation levels or could be re engineered to
give higher returns is also important.

Policy has to have a long term vision, while being
proactive in the short term by tweaking new evolving markets while others
contract.

GRTU President and CEO have this week met re-elected MEP,
Roberta Metsola. GRTU and Dr Metsola discussed the Draft Agenda of the Plenary
to be held between 14 and 17 July in Strasbourg. On the draft agenda are very
important topics, amongst which the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP), Maternity Leave Directive and Youth Employment.

GRTU explained the issue we have with bank interest
rates and charges and that this is not only an important debate in Malta but
also an important debate at EU level especially following the bold steps taken
by the European Central Bank which has been pushing for low interest rates and
even issued negative interest rates on savings to prioritise lending. GRTU
asked MEP Metsola to look into issue.

Dr Metsola also made reference to the position sent by
GRTU to all Maltese MEPs on the MIF Regulation which she will be following up
on.

The meeting was indeed a very positive one and GRTU
intends to continue building on the excellent working relationship it has established
with MEP Metsola during the last year.

During a Public Dialogue session organized by MEUSAC on the
Priorities of the Italian Presidency, GRTU CEO Abigail Psaila Mamo, emphasized
the importance of having the regulation on interchange fees treated with
absolute priority.

The regulation needs to be adopted by the end of 2014 so
that it can come into affect at the earliest possible. It is however important
that it is adopted according to the version approved in Plenary by the European
Parliament last April.

Unfortunately it seems that the Italian Presidency
intends to put forward a set of new proposals to these Regulations which it
will lobby for in Council and later at the EP. The proposals being put forward
by Italy are not going in the right direction in our view. GRTU has insisted
with the Maltese Government and the Maltese MEPs that they should support the
version of the European Parliament Plenary in April 2014.

Multilateral
interchange fees have been found at European Commission and court level to be
anti-competitive; they have cost businesses and consumers, on average, €9
billion per year for over a decade and stand in the way of market development
across Europe. The MIF is an important part of the total cost for card
acceptance and ultimately contributes to the prices of goods and services for
final consumers.

Healthier
competition is badly needed in the retail payments market to promote innovation,
improve customer service and ensure flexibility. The payments package will
provide benefits for all:

For consumers:

A true choice of low-cost, safe,
efficient electronic payments which operate across the EU. Lower MIFs will
produce better services and lower prices for all consumers, whether they use
payment cards or not.

The ability to use cards at more
outlets, as lower fees enable small merchants to take cards.

Access to new products and services
at transparent costs.

Full access to new e-commerce
services and new technologies.

For merchants:

Merchants will pay their fair share
of card costs and no more: they will be able to improve services and pass on
savings to consumers.

Easy access to an EU-wide market for
products and services.

For payment
providers:

An expanded market and the emergence
of new payment products will increase transaction numbers and so maintain
revenues.

Extra services can be marketed
through increased online traffic for banks.

Banks will move to embrace new
technologies, innovative payment products and make the best use of new
technologies.

The six month
countdown has begun to a major change in the EU VAT system, which will ease
life for many businesses and ensure fairer revenue distribution between Member
States. From 1 January 2015, VAT on all telecommunications, broadcasting and
electronic services will be due where the customer is based, rather than where
the supplier is located.

This changeover will ensure a more level playing field
for businesses, and fairer taxation rights amongst Member States. In parallel,
a mini One Stop Shop will be launched, greatly reducing costs and
administrative burdens for businesses concerned. With the mini One Stop Shop,
businesses supplying e-services to customers in more than one EU country will
be able to declare and pay all their VAT in their own Member State. This is
consistent with the Commission's goal of reducing tax obstacles and burdens for
cross-border companies in the Single Market. The Commission has invested
greatly over the past few years to ensure that national tax authorities and
businesses are well-prepared and equipped to ensure a smooth transition to the
new system next year. This work continues, along with an intensive information
campaign, to ensure that both Member States and companies can reap the full
benefits of these important changes.