Author: SME Chamber

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.

The European Commission is preparing to retreat on some
elements of reform of state subsidies for renewable energy. The Commission has published a draft version of
guidelines that have set out what kinds of subsidies member states are allowed
to offer their renewable energy industries without falling foul of European
Union rules on state aid.

Those guidelines are supposed to reduce distortions
to the internal market, which have, for example, seen traditional energy
companies in neighbouring countries complain about subsidies in Germany that
prompted excessive production.

The guidelines call for greater co-ordination to take
into account the effects of such policy changes on neighbouring countries.

The Commission put forward an initial draft for public
consultation back in December, but significant changes have since been made to
a version that emerged last week from inter-departmental discussions.

The initial draft required states to have a bidding
process for public subsidies, so that generators of renewable energy would
compete against each other.

Technologies

Whereas the Commission had initially sought to
distinguish between renewable energy technologies that are still in development
and those that are already mature, this distinction has not survived in the
revised draft. The initial thinking was that governments should not be
subsidising technologies that no longer needed assistance in order to compete
against hydrocarbons or nuclear energy. Without a distinction, there is a risk
that more mature technologies will be over-compensated and shut out emerging
technologies from the market. However, lobbyists from the renewable energy
sector claimed that unless the Commission adopted a technology-neutral approach
that treated all renewable the same, regardless of maturity, then rival
renewable energy technologies might harm each other.

The latest draft maintains the Commission's intention
to mandate bidding processes for most subsidies, but introduces a series of
exceptions that member states could use to avoid this requirement. Germany,
which is adamantly opposed to mandatory bidding, has been lobbying against the
proposal, with France, Italy and the UK also opposed.

The revised draft would also delay the start of
restrictions on subsidies, introducing a transitional phase from 2015 to 2017,
when only 5% of renewable energy capacity would require bidding. Wind farms
that generate less than 6 megawatts would not be subject to bidding. The
guidelines are supposed to take effect from July.

Government support for renewable energy is estimated
to have cost the EU more than €30 billion in 2010. The Commission wants to
reduce this by replacing feed-in tariffs with tradeable green certificates.

This year's
EuroCommerce General Assembly was held in Rome at the ConfCommercio head
quarters and GRTU president Paul Abela attended. The meeting was presided by
EuroCommerce President Lady Neville-Rolfe and Director General Christian
Verschueren.

The General
Assembly concluded that the next five years will be decisive to regain a
situation of growth and employment in Europe. In this regard commerce can
provide an   important contribution but
this only if the right political and economic conditions are created.

Despite
the crisis and the drop in consumption that have affected many countries it
remains a solid fact that the digital age is going through major
transformations. In Europe, one in four businesses pertain to this sector,
which is worth 11% of European value added and employs nearly 30 million
people. There are, however, still obstacles and difficulties which hamper its
development, such as the lack of effective implementation of the single market
for goods and services and the lack of flexibility of the labor market in some
EU countries.

EuroCommerce
has identified a number of proposals for the next five years mainly targeted at
the digital sector that support use of new technologies by entrepreneurs and
consumer in retail.

Is-Segretarjat Parlamentari
għall-Biedja, Sajd u Drittijiet tal-annimali ippublika l-abbozz tal-avviż legali fil-gazzetta tal-Gvern
li jkopri l-industrija tal-prodotti tal-ħalib. Fil-preżent fil-liġi ta' Malta hemm
regolamenti li jkopru l-ħalib iżda ma hemmx regolamenti fuq il-prodotti magħmulha mill-ħalib.

Hemm regolamenti Ewropej dwar
il-produzjoni ta' proddotti tal-ħalib li, li kieku kelna napplikawhom għal
Malta, kien ikollna inwaqqfu il-produzzjoni kollha tal-ġbejniet tradizzjonali.

Għaldaqstant biex ninkorporaw fil-liġi Maltija
ir-regolamenti li jħarsu il-produzzjoni ta' prodotti tal-ħalib kif ukoll
prodotti tradizzjonali u norbtu dan kollu
biex ikun konformi mar-regolamenti Ewropej,
is-Segretarjat ifforma dan l-abbozz. 

Malta b'dan l-abbozz qiegħda taddotta derogi lokali biex il-produzzjoni tal-ġbejniet tradizzjonali tibqa' ssir sakemm dawn 
ikunu prodotti taħt sistema ta' prodott ta' origini ikkontrollata. Dan ifisser
li dan il-prodott tradizzjonali ser jakkwista garanzija ta kif jiġi maħdum, maħżun u mibjugħ. Dan l-abbozz:

huwa
marbut mal-fatt li s-settur permezz tax-xirka tal-produtturi tan-nagħaġ
u l-mogħoż, iridu japplikaw biex il-produzzjoni tal-ġbejniet tiġi
mgħarfa mill-awtoritajiet Ewropej u l-ġbejna tiġi rreġistrata bħala
prodott
b'ċertifikazzjoni DOP (Denominazioni di
Origini Protetta).

ifisser li prodotti oħra li
mhumhiex maħduma bħalma għanda tinħadem il-ġbejna tradizzjonali u li
jużaw ukoll ħalib li mhux tan-nagħaġ għall-produzzjoni tal-ġbejna, iridu
jiġu mgħajta b'isem ieħor fis-suq.

ser isaħħaħ u
jżid ukoll il-garanziji għall-konsumatur li l-prodotti tal-ħalib kollha
prodotti f'Malta jridu jittestjaw il-ħalib ta' kull speċi u ta' kull
oriġini darbtejn fix-xahar minbarra t-testijiet li jsiru fuq l-annimali
kollha irreġistrati fl-irziezet.