Author: SME Chamber

For 10 years
the EU Rapid Information system (RAPEX) has been guarding European consumers
against un-safe non-food products. In 2013 a total of 2,364 measures were taken
by EU Member States. This figure indicates a 3.8% rise in alerts compared to
2012 and continues the increasing trend which has been apparent since the
establishment of RAPEX in 2003.

At the
end of October last year the number of foreigners on full-time and part-time
work in Malta totalled 15,094, of whom 9,670 came from the EU and 5,424 from
outside.

Employment
Minister Evarist Bartolo gave the information in reply to a parliamentary
question by Labour MP Etienne Grech.

Matul il-laqgħa li saret tal-Kunsill
Malti għall-Iżvilupp Ekonomiku u Soċjali ġie diskuss il-futur tal-MEPA u kif
din se tkun qiegħda tinqasam f'parti li tħares l-ambjent u parti
għall-iżvilupp.

Il-Ministru għad-Djalogu Soċjali,
Affarijiet tal-Konsumatur u Libertajiet Ċivili Dr Helena Dalli fetħet il-laqgħa
u qalet li hemm bżonn bilanċ bejn l-iżvilupp, l-ekonomija u l-ħarsien
tal-ambjent, filwaqt li għandha tingħata importanza lis-sostenibbiltà.

Is-Segretarju Parlamentari għall-ippjanar u
Simplifikazzjoni
Amministrattiva Michael Farrugia semma li l-għan prinċipali ma kienx
biss
it-twaqqif ta' dawn l-awtoritajiet imma li jiġu simplifikati l-proċessi
tal-applikazzjonijiet għal żvilupp billi tinħoloq one stop shop u li
l-klijent ikun moqdi b'servizz aħjar u mhux joqgħod jiġri minn
post għall-iehor.

Issemma wkoll
il-kunċett ta' fast
track għal
dawk l-applikazzjonijiet li jkunu konformi mal-policies, pjanijiet
lokali u numru ta' kundizzjonijiet oħra stipulati f'dan il-process.

Għall-ewwel darba fuq il-planning board se jkun hemm rappreżentant tal-Awtorità
tal-Ambjent u Riżorsi, rappreżentant tal- NGOs u f'kazijiet ta' żvilupp ta'
ċertu entità l-Kunsill Lokali ta' dik il-lokalità jkun rapprentant u jkollu vot.

L-entitajiet kollha konsultattivi
fil-proċess tal-applikazzjinjiet se jkollhom id-dritt illi jappellaw quddiem
Tribunal Indipendenti minn deċiżjonijiet tal-Planning Board jew Planning
Commision.

Leo Brincat, Ministru ghall-izvilupp sostenibbli, l-ambjent u
t-tibdil fil-klima – Meta dalgħodu
il-Ministru għall-Iżvilupp Sostenibbli, l-Ambjent u t-Tibdil fil-Klima kien qed
jindirizza u jwieġeb interventi li sarulu waqt laqgħa tal-MCESD dwar il-pjan
tal-Gvern biex jkun hemm qasma bejn il-MEPA kif nafuha llum u l-ħolqien ta'
żewġ awtoritajiet; dik tal-Ambjent u R-Riżorsi u oħra dwar l-Iżvilupp u
l-Ippjanar, il-Ministru Leo Brincat fisser għaliex ir-riforma fil-MEPA se
ssaħħaħ is-settur ambjentali.

Il-Ministru
Brincat fisser li bħala Awtorità awtonoma hija tkun tista' tieħu pożizzjoni fuq
proposti jew deċiżjonijiet li jittieħdu minn entitajiet oħra fuq l-istess
livell u mhux kif inhi illum – li tibqa' 
entità sempliċiment b'miri u funzjonijiet differenti u xi kultant
diverġenti.

Rigward
l-Ippjanar u l-Iżvilupp, l-Awtorità l-ġdida dwar l-Ambjent u r-Riżorsi se
jkollha rappreżentant fuq il-Bord tal-Ippjanar, se tkun entità li bilfors trid
tiġi kkonsultata b'mod statutorju u se jkollha dritt tappella fuq deċiżjonijiet
tal-Ippjanar u l-Iżvilupp.

L-Awtorità
nnifisha jkollha wkoll id-dritt li ssemma leħinha uffiċjalment u  pubblikament bħala Awtorità fuq issues li
jkollha riservi serji dwarhom.

In 2013, average hourly labour costs
in the whole economy (excluding agriculture and public administration) were
estimated to be €23.7 in the EU28 and €28.4 in the euro area (EA17). However,
this average masks significant differences between EU Member States, with the
lowest hourly labour costs recorded in Bulgaria (€3.7), Romania (€4.6), Lithuania (€6.2) and Latvia (€6.3), and the
highest in Sweden (€40.1), Denmark (€38.4), Belgium (€38.0), Luxembourg (€35.7) and France (€34.3).

Within the
business economy, labour costs per hour were highest in industry (€24.6 in the
EU28 and €31.0 in the euro area), followed by services
(€23.9 and €28.0 respectively) and construction (€21.0 and €24.5). In the
mainly non-business economy (excluding public administration), labour costs per
hour were €23.2 in the EU28 and €27.7 in the euro area.

Labour costs
are made up of wages & salaries and non-wage costs such as employers'
social contributions. The share of non-wage costs in the whole economy was
23.7% in the EU28 and 25.9% in the euro area, varying between 8.0% in Malta and
33.3% in Sweden.

These
preliminary estimates for 2013, published by Eurostat, the statistical office
of the European Union, cover enterprises with 10 or more employees and are
based on the 2008 Labour Cost Survey and the Labour Cost Index.

GRTU has last
week written to Hon Joe Mizzi Minister for Transport and Infrastructure asking
for a meeting to clarify the recent revisions of the CVA. Upon introduction of
the new revisions to the CVA scheme announced in the Budget 2014 speech GRTU
and its members immediately came out supporting the revision. We, our members
and many others however were under the impression that this would mean that no
CVA would be charged after 14.00hrs.

Three
months from the introduction of the revision, GRTU is receiving various
complaints from shop owners, employees, etc… saying they are still being
charged CVA after 14.00 hrs. After having enquired GRTU learned that only those
parking into Valletta after 14.00 are not charged, while those that came in an
hour or so earlier are charged normally for the rest of the day.

Do we
want to force people that are parked in Valletta to go out of the CVA zone and
in again at 14.00 to benefit from the waiver? One reason why we were pleased
with the change was that people could come in and have lunch or a snack and
spend time in Valletta shopping after. This was the change we were in favour of
to really boost business and encourage people to come in. 

GRTU
stated that we feel people have been misled and something needs to be done to
address this.

Witness the events of the 1984
Bhopal disaster in India in which approximately 3,787 are officially recorded
as being killed, and it becomes clear what destruction the misuse of chemicals
can cause. The United Nations has addressed the issue in the hope of ensuring
the safe use, transport and disposal of such chemicals.

The UN did this through
the introduction of the "Globally Harmonized System of Classification and
Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)" system. The GHS's scope is to disclose a
classification of chemicals according to hazard risks and propose a
harmonisation of hazard communication components, for instance: safety data
sheets and labels. The GHS offers a foundation for a harmonisation of rules and
regulations on the use of chemicals at a national, regional and supranational
level. Harmonisation also greatly facilitates trade, where imports and exports
would have similar – if not exact – labelling, among other factors.

In 2003, the European Commission
adopted a proposal for a new EU regulatory framework for chemicals, called
REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), that made it a
necessity for enterprises that import or manufacture more than one tonne of
chemical substance per annum to register information in a main database. REACH
is an initiative with the aim of improving the safeguarding of human health and
the environment, and upholding competitiveness and innovative capabilities of
the EU chemicals industry.

The European Union has
aligned its legislation with the UN's GHS system through Regulation (CE)
1272/2008 (CLP Regulation). Among the changes that came with this CLP
Regulation is the replacing of old terms with new ones, such as "mixtures"
instead of "preparations" and "hazardous" instead of "dangerous." The
Regulation has also introduced new red-framed pictograms to gradually replace
the older orange danger symbols.

Suppliers are usually
required to decide on the classification of a mixture or substance, collectively
known as "self-classification." Sometimes the decision on the classification of
a chemical is even taken at Community level so as to ensure proper risk
management. Suppliers are expected to replace the classifications under the
Dangerous Substances Directive with the new harmonised classification and
labelling that has been mentioned above. The instances in which suppliers are
required to label a substance or mixture contained in packaging are as follows:

–    When
a substance is classified as hazardous

–    When
a mixture contains one or more substances classified as hazardous above a
certain threshold

The full application of
this Regulation is a gradual process, in which the CLP Regulation that entered
into force on 20 January 2009 will increasingly substitute the labelling and
classification of the Dangerous Substances (67/548/EEC) and Dangerous Preparations
(1999/45/EC) Directives. These two obsolete Directives will be annulled on 1
June 2015. From this date onwards, all mixtures in products must be classified
according to the CLP Regulation, and two years later (1 June 2017) a
re-packaging and re-labelling of products already on the market must be
completed.

The European chemical
Substances Information System (ESIS) can provide valuable information to those
working in trade as it contains a database of chemicals and the risks they
entail. This database can be found at: 
http://esis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/. The European Chemicals Agency website
provides more detailed analyses on chemicals through its Classification and
Labelling Inventory.

When placing a hazardous
substance on the EU market, businesses must inform the Classification &
Labelling Inventory within one month of placing the substance on the market for
the first time. One must also note that this service is free of charge.
Additionally, importers must follow a particular timeframe in which the one month
is counted from the day the substance is physically introduced into the EU's
customs territory.

In order to comply with
CLP, businesses can follow a number of steps:

1.   Identify
your role and obligations under the CLP regulation. A business can have more
than one role, and these roles include manufacturers, importers, users,
distributors and producers of articles.

2.   Update
the inventory of your substances and mixtures.

3. Familiarise yourself with your substances to see
whether they are subject to harmonised classification at Community level by
consulting Annex VI to the CLP Regulation

      (http://echa.europa.eu/en/addressing-chemicals-of-concern/harmonised-classification-and-labelling/annex-vi-to-clp).

4.   Make use of
the ECHA website.

5.   View how
other companies have notified the same substance in the ECHA Classification
& Labelling Inventory.

European SMEs' confidence has
increased over the last six months by almost two percentages points and now
reaches 67.9 for the entire European Union. However, the difference between
South & Periphery and North and Core Europe does not decrease and remains
at about 15 percentage points.

In particular, SMEs in the construction and
personal services sector are negatively affected by the low level of household
demand, which had already hindered SMEs exiting the recession last semester.
The slightly better outlook for the first half of 2014 may bring SMEs out of
recession but it will not be enough to grow or to create jobs.

"The UEAPME SME Business
Climate index increased by 1.8 during the last semester. However, it is still
clearly below 70, which we see as a neutral stance We therefore cannot yet
speak of a recovery and will see no growth and no new jobs in the first half of
2014", said Gerhard Huemer, Director of the UEAPME Study Unit, which issues the
"Craft and SME Barometer" prior to the EU summits in spring and in autumn. SMEs
are mainly lagging behind the slight overall recovery because of their larger
dependence on household demand and of their difficulties in accessing finance
for in-vestments. Furthermore, the huge difference between North & Core and
South & Periphery still exists and keeps confidence down.

The SME Barometer shows
slightly improved results for the second half of 2013 in most of the economic
indicators except investments, but the figures are much worse than expected six
months ago. "This clearly proves that the recession did not come to an end in
the last months of 2013, at least for SMEs," explained Mr Huemer, "the
situation was at its worst for investments, where we saw for the first time
that SMEs have even less investments accomplished than they had originally
planned."

The figures for the first
half of 2014 show only limited improvements and are not strong enough to turn
the recession into a recovery. "According to our figures, we will see some
growth in central and northern Europe, but without significant effects on employment. However, the SME
sector in southern and peripheral Europe may remain in recession and further
job reductions cannot be excluded", said Mr Huemer. He continued to say that
"the only positive fact is that many SMEs expect higher sale prices, proving
that SMEs do not foresee any risks of deflation in Europe".

"A more positive future
development will depend on the materialisation of the risks coming from
geo-political instabilities or unsolved problems in the financial sector and is
only feasible if needed reforms continue and access to finance is improved",
concluded Mr Huemer.