Author: SME Chamber

GRTU Council
Member Joan Haber has last week attended a conference hosted by the European
Commission in Brussels to discuss progress in tackling youth unemployment
through the Youth Guarantee.

The
"Youth Guarantee: Making it Happen" conference also looked at how EU
countries are implementing the schemes, as recommended by the Commission.
Speakers include President José Manuel Barroso, who opened the conference,
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, and
Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Guy Ryder.

Ahead of
the conference, President Barroso said, "With youth unemployment
unacceptably high across the EU, we need to do something urgently to help young
people into jobs. Youth Guarantees have proven their worth in several Member
States, which is why the European Commission has stepped in to recommend they
be implemented across the EU. And we have backed this up with at least €6
billion of dedicated funding from the Youth Employment Initiative that Member
States must now put to good use. This is a commitment at the highest level that
we are actively working to give young people hope for the future."

Commissioner
Andor said "The Youth Guarantee is not business as usual. It's an ambitious
and innovative policy for youth employment targeting a clear result: that every
young person gets a good labour market opportunity within 4 months. This
requires investment and many structural changes in how young people are
supported in moving from school to work. We cannot expect all young people's
job prospects to improve from one day to the next. But we do expect all Member
States to promptly implement the Youth Guarantee to give everyone a real
chance".

GRTU President
Paul Abela and Executive Abigail Mamo have this week had the opportunity to
welcome Dr Filip Bucin, who is a lawyer 
by professions and has been short listed for the position of Honorary
Consul for Malta in Malmo.

Malmö is
Sweden's third largest city by population, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.
It  was one of the earliest and most
industrialized towns of Scandinavia, but it struggled with the adaptation to
post-industrialism. The economy of Malmö was traditionally based on
shipbuilding and construction related industries, such as concrete factories.

Almost
30 companies have moved their headquarters to Malmö during the last seven
years, generating around 2,300 jobs. The level of new started companies is high
in Malmö. Around 7 new companies are started every day in Malmö. In 2010, the
renewal of the number of companies amounted to 13.9%, which exceeds both
Stockholm and Gothenburg. Among the industries that continue to increase their
share of companies in Malmö are transport, financial and business services,
entertainment, leisure and construction.

GRTU had
written to the Minister for Transport Hon Joe Mizzi following complaints
received by retailers operating their business from Dejma Road, Tarxien and the
surrounding areas, that since Dejma road was temporarily changed into a one way
street their business had been affected very negatively.

GRTU had not been
involved in discussions. It is very likely that when a road is changed to a one
way the traffic flow will increase in the surrounding roads.

Following
this GRTU received communication by the Ministry through which we have been
informed that the One-Way System was on a one month trial period which has now
elapsed and will not be made permanent as following monitoring it became evident
that the problem is an enforcement one and should be addressed through
enforcement measures and not through a one-way.

GRTU
sent a letter of thanks to the Minister for the cooperation we found from the
side of the Ministry.

Maltese enterprises should be given lower interest rates – GRTU was very
pleased to hear the undeniable confirmation from the Governor of the Central
Bank himself who insisted that lending rates practiced in Malta are the fourth
highest in the euro area. Maltese SMEs are facing lending rates that are far
higher than those faced by their counterparts not just in Luxembourg but also
in distressed countries Spain and Italy

SME
lending rates in Malta are not in synch with the MRO. The rates in Malta are
higher than the euro area average even if the latter is biased upwards due to
stressed countries. The spread between SME lending rates in Malta and MRO rates
was at 2.3% before 2009 and widened to 4.9% by the end of last year.

The
Governor further backed GRTU's claims that what we need is a Development bank.
GRTU has been insisting with the Government and at MCESD that setting up a
Development Bank is a priority.

GRTU
President Paul Abela reiterated GRTU's long standing argument that both bank
interest rates and bank charges are excessive,       especially on the smaller enterprises that
have less negotiating muscle.

Banks
are still increasing their charges with a relatively recent development as an
example by HSBC where it had introduced charges on internet baking to the
private sector. The Bank had saved money when it closed some branches and
pushed businesses to go online to affect their banking needs.

Governor
Bonnici stated that bank charges in Malta are higher than in many other places
and that one would have thought that with the changeover to internet banking,
charges would be lower, but that has not been the case.

In
Luxembourg banks reduced costs of internet banking to encourage people to
switch over to internet banking. Not in Malta. In Malta banks charge you even
to transfer your money between your own accounts because more than one bank is
involved.

The EU
is also looking closely into bank charges and the European Commission has
already issued Communications that should result in curbing abuses in this
regard.

The Malta-EU
Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) together with the Ministry for Finance
(MFIN) will be organising a consultation session on a ‘Proposal for a Council
Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added
tax as regards a standard VAT return'.  

This
consultation session will focus on a system that has two main objectives: to
reduce obstacles to cross-border trade and to reduce burdens on domestic
businesses in order to support growth and competitiveness.

Should
you be interested in attending kindly register at by not later than Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at noon.

The consultation session will be held on

Wednesday,
April 23, 2014 at 2:30 p.m.

at
MEUSAC, 280, Republic Street, Valletta.

Malta
Enterprise invites interested parties to participate in a B2B networking
session organised in conjunction with the Confederation of Indian Industries
(CII).  Besides representatives from the
CII, Indian companies from the following sectors will be present:- education
and training, engineering and construction, 
engineering services, iron and steel and electrical machinery,
pharmaceuticals and healthcare and fire safety.

The
participating Indian companies are also interested in collaborating with
Maltese companies to explore together trade and investment opportunities in
Malta's neighbouring countries.

Time:           14.00 hrs onwards

Venue:          Malta Enterprise, Pieta`

To
register for the event and for more specific information about the
participating companies please contact Malta Enterprise on 2542 0000 or via
email .

Agriculture is
a fundamental issue that the EU has to deal with on a frequent basis. In fact,
one of the main features of the EU is its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that
was established in 1962 in order to ensure food security, to improve
agricultural productivity for affordable food for consumers and to ensure that
EU farmers can make a reasonable living.

A growing trend nowadays is the option
of buying organic products, which the Union is now promoting because of the
health and environmental benefits of organic farming. The CAP is one of the
motors that is working towards helping more farmers turn to organic farming.

Organic
food was once a commodity only found in health food shops, however it is now
common to find organic products in many supermarkets around the EU. Organic
producers must abide by Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and Commission
Regulation (EC) No 889/2008; they are of course expected to own or rent farm
land and also be knowledgeable on this form of agriculture. "Organic" is a term
used to describe the farming method that places an emphasis on water and soil
conservation and a reduction of pollution. Thus, organic producers differ from
conventional farms. One example would be that, unlike conventional producers,
they do not use chemical fertilisers to grow plants and instead opt for natural
fertilisers such as manure.

Over the
last decade the EU organic market has quadrupled in size, thereby requiring
some alterations to be made to the rules and regulations so as to allow the
organic food sector to progress. The EU has set up a number of rules, such as
the labelling and logo rules which make it easier for consumers to identify
organic products. It is obligatory for organic producers to make use of the
logo for any pre-packaged organic food that has been produced within the EU's
borders.

A new
proposal by the European Commission for improved regulations on organic
production and labelling aims to respond to the challenges posed by the present
system. Dacian Ciolos, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development,
has stated that the EU is working towards eliminating obstacles to the growth
of organic agriculture with a proposal that is beneficial to both producers and
consumers. According to Commissioner Ciolos, "producers and retailers [of
organic products] will have access to a larger market, both within and outside
the EU." When it comes to agricultural trade with states outside of the EU, the
proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the
United States and the EU is an interesting issue to look at. A prominent factor
to the negotiations over an open EU-US market is the mutual recognition of
rules and regulations. The US standards in food and agriculture are lower than
the EU's and therefore the EU might be required to lower its own standards for
any deal to take place.

The
Commission's proposal features three main goals: maintaining producer
confidence, maintaining consumer confidence and making the transition to
organics more accessible for farmers. It is fundamental that the practice of
organic farming remains true to its objectives and values so that the
consumer's quality and environmental demands are met. In a nutshell, the
Commission aims to harmonise rules, reinforce controls by making them
risk-based, simplify the legislation to reduce administrative costs for farmers
and make it easier for small farmers to take part in organic farming through an
introduction of a group certification system.

A
Maltese NGO, Malta Organic Agriculture Movement (MOAM), aims to inform the
public about the benefits of organic products. It is an independent and
voluntary organisation that was established back in 1999, whose members include
farmers, consumers and others who seek to promote organic farming in Malta.
Furthermore, the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and
Climate Change has a separate branch – the Organic Farming Unit – that happens
to be one of the more contemporary sections within the Department of
Agriculture. The Organic Farming Unit is required to increase awareness of
organic farming in the Maltese Islands and help make organic farming a more
viable practice. The body also supervises the importation of organic products
from third countries, whilst fulfilling expectations of Community Regulation
2092/91.

Article
by Andre Rizzo Naudi – Student reading a Bachelors degree in European Studies
at the University of Malta

A €1 million
film co-production grant was this week launched . The grant is aimed at turning
scripts into actual productions.Since
the Malta Film Fund's introduction back in 2008, more than 58 projects had
applied for the grants but only six were ever finalised.

The
Malta Film Fund is divided into two separate development and production funds
with a maximum of €30,000 for each film, €10,000 more than the previous
allotment.

The
grant will see some productions given 100 per cent financial support. The
previous fund would only cover a maximum of 50 per cent, with the production
team forking out the other half.

Applications
were just launched for the development funds while the production grant will be
launched in June. At this stage all applications would be processed by the end
of the respective month. Once approved for funding, all projects will be
assigned a mentor from the film commission to assist in development and project
management.

The commerce
sector is eager to make a success of the European digital single market,
provided that the conditions for online cross border selling are improved. The
European Parliament presented a study suggesting that with the right policy
measures the single digital market could already in the coming years create
additional EU28 GDP growth of at least 2 per cent, or around 260 billion euros.

The
European Consumer Summit will take stock of barriers which prevent consumers
from accessing the full benefits of a European digital single market and what
regulators need to do to ensure that consumers get the best possible deal that
Europe can offer.

Currently,
the possibilities to get the best European deal are rather limited for
consumers. The commerce sector still struggles with too many barriers which
block the free flow of goods and online services across national borders, in
practice there are still 28 national online markets. Consumers are also
considerably more likely to purchase online from national providers (41 per
cent) than from those located in other EU countries (11 percent).

To
stimulate traders to sell more online across the border it is important to
reduce legal uncertainty. It is also particularly important to harmonize
consumer rights rules and consumer information requirements, which still differ
considerably between EU countries.

A
further push would provide cheaper and more competitive payments. The European
Parliament and Council should therefore swiftly approve the Payment Services
Directive II and the MIF Regulation to make cross border payments cheaper and
more competitive.

Lastly,
important work is needed on postal services, tax administration, skills, and
infrastructure to boost online cross border selling.