Author: SME Chamber

Innovative small and
medium-sized companies in Europe will be able to apply from tomorrow for grants
to help get their brightest ideas from the lab to the market. In total, some €3
billion in funding will be available under the "SME Instrument" over
the next seven years as part of Horizon 2020, the EU's new research and
innovation programme.

Funding is competitive and project proposals have to be
in line with call topics published on the Participant Portal, the gateway to EU
research funding. In 2014, some €250 million of funding will be available under
the SME Instrument's permanently open call.

 More information can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/funding/sme_participation.html

The European Commission has
rendered legally binding the commitments offered by Visa Europe to
significantly cut its multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) for credit card
payments to a level of 0.3% of the value of the transaction (a reduction of
about 40 to 60%) and to reform its rules in order to facilitate cross-border
competition. Vice President Almunia said:

Women in Europe still work 59
days ‘for free' – this is what the latest figures released by the European
Commission show. The gender pay gap has barely moved in recent years and still
stands at around 16%.

The European Commission's online
Single Market Scoreboard has been updated as regards two main governance tools:
transposition of Single Market-related directives and infringements in that
area for the reference period between May and November 2013.

After having
fallen steadily, the EU's average transposition deficit – the percentage of
Single Market directives that have not been transposed into national law in
time – has gone up slightly to 0.7%. Sixteen Member States have a higher
transposition deficit than they had six months ago. However, the most worrying
fact is that five Member States have exceeded the 1.0 % target set by the
European Council: Belgium, Italy, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia. Malta has the
lowest transposition deficit at 0.2%.

With regard to the
application of Single Market law, the number of infringements has not changed
over the last six months. The number of open infringements has gone down by 38%
since the EU Pilot project started operating in November 2007. The average
number of infringement proceedings across the EU stands at 30 cases, Malta is
the 4th lowest with 12 infringement proceedings.

The steady economic recovery in
most Member States and in the EU as a whole will continue, according to the
European Commission's winter forecast of 25 February. After exiting the
recession in spring 2013 and posting three consecutive quarters of subdued recovery,
the economy is set for a moderate step-up in economic growth.

Following real GDP growth
of 1.5% in the EU and 1.2% in the euro area in 2014, economic activity is seen
accelerating in 2015 to 2.0% and 1.8% respectively. These figures each represent
an upward revision of 0.1 percentage points compared with the autumn 2013
forecast.

A modest rise in
employment is expected from this year onwards while consumer price inflation is
expected to remain subdued. Diminishing uncertainty should underpin stronger
demand, which is expected to become the key driver of growth as deleveraging
pressures, funding constraints as well as internal and external adjustment
needs gradually subside.

According to the
Forecast, Malta has the strongest employment growth among all EU Member States.
Malta has also the fourth lowest unemployment rate and retains strong growth
projections. The revision of deficit figures follows two consecutive forecasts
which predicted a deficit in excess of 3% for 2013 and 2014. This is now revised
positively to 3% in 2013, and 2.7% in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The European Parliament rightly
adopted a resolution to make Single Market Governance a dedicated pillar of the
European Semester.

Today Europe is still a
long way off a smooth functioning internal market, particularly in services
such as retail and wholesale. Actions are necessary to make it easier for
retailers or wholesalers to sell cross-border, establish and conduct a business
in another Member State, and enable companies to fully benefit from a true
internal market. Making Single Market governance an integral part of the annual
European Semester cycle will put it high on the political agenda and guarantee
its ongoing improvement.

Member States and the
Commission can help to improve the governance of the Single Market through:

a fast and zero-tolerance attitude towards infriengements of EU legislation;

promoting and better resourcing SOLVIT centres;

accessible, comprehensive and up-to-date Points of Single Contact;

full and correct implementation of the Services Directive;

implementation of Single Market Acts I and II

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De
Gucht met with US Trade Representative Michael Froman in Washington, D.C. from
17-18 February to review progress on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership Agreement (TTIP) negotiations that were launched in July 2013.

L-GRTU
tesprimi d-dizappunt taghha ghal mod ta' kif 
l-licenzji ta' vetturi fosthom; burdnara, scammels, distributuri
ta' ikel u xorb u ohrajn gholew b'mod eccessiv u minghajr ebda konsultazzjoni.

Il-membri
tal-GRTU qed jigu mgieghla li mill-1 ta' Jannar 2014 ihallsu mizati eccessevi
ghall-licenzji ta' vetturi kummercjali, zidiet li f'certu kazijiet jitilghu
ghal aktar minn tlett mija fil-mija. Din izzieda dahhlet fis-sehh minghajr ebda
konsultazzjoni minn naha tal-Gvern,  tant
li dawn is-sezzjonijiet partikolari kienu sorprizi bl-introduzzjoni taghhom.

Fl-laqgha
li l-GRTU ghan nom ta' dawn l-membri kellha ma Transport Malta giet infurmata
li dawn iz-zidiet kienu msemmija fil-Bagit 2009, izda l-GRTU qatt ma kienet
infurmata u wisq anqas kunsultata u issa sabet ma wiccha dawn iz-zidied
imdahhlin fis-sehh minghajr ma sar ebda impact
assessment.

Dawn
iz-zidiet eccessevi jfissru piz finanzjarju kbir fuq dawn s-sidien ta vetturi
kummercjali li juzaw dawn il-vetturi bhala l-ghodda ewlenija ghan-negozju
taghhom. Dan ser jwassal ghal zieda fil-prezzijiet li se jaffettwa lill-konsumatur
b'riskju ghall-impjiegi u l-impjegati tal-istess sidien.

Dawn
iz-zidiet huma diskriminatorji fil-konfront tal-s-self employed
iz-zghir, il-ghaliex filwaqt li fuqu qed jigu mposti dawn iz-zidiet
eccessivi fil-hlas tal-licenzji mhux l-istess jigri fil-konfront ta'
vetturi
ohra bhal xarabanks li l-hlas tal-licenzja taghhom hu baxx u sahansitra
ssussidjat.

L-GRTU
tappella lill-Gvern biex jisma t-talba ta dawn s-sidien ta' vetturi kummercjali
u flimkien insibu soluzzjoni li tghin biex tnehhi dan il-piz finanzjarju li
tpogga fuq n-negozjant zghir u medju.

Dawn
huma ezempji ta whud miz-zidiet imposti mill-1 ta' Jannar 2014:

1. Tractor Unit, ERF, mudell EC11 tal-1998
fl-2013 kien ihallas 701 ewros fis-sena u mill-1 ta ' Jannar 2014 il-licenjza
zdiedet b' 428 ewro – zieda ta' 61% u li ghalhekk jammonta ghal 1,129 ewros

2. ForkLifter, TCM, tal-1998 kien ihallas
185 ewros fis-sena u mill-1 ta' jannar 2014 il-licenzja zdiedet b'113 ewro –
zieda ta' 61% u li ghalhekk jammonta ghal 298 ewro.

3. Vann Transit tal-1987 fl-2013 kien
ihallas 185 ewro fis-sena u mill-1 ta' Jannar 2014 il-licenzja zdiedet b'113
ewro – zieda ta 61% u li ghalhekk jammonta ghal 298 ewro.

4.
Crane, CRUPP, tal-1994, fl-2013 kien ihallas 185 ewro fis-sena u mill-1 ta
Jannar 2014 illicenzja zdiedet b' 636 ewros – zieda ta' 344% u li ghalhekk
jammonta ghal 821 ewro.

L-Onorevoli Silvio Schembri,
President tal-Kumitat Permanenti dwar l-Affarijiet Ekonomici u Finanzjarji
jiltataqa' mall-GRTU – l-Kamra Maltija ghan-Negozzji Zghar u Medji. L-iskop ta' din l-laqgħa
kien sabiex l-Onor Schembri jkompli jisma' kif jaħsbuha d-diversi setturi dwar
ir-rati tal-imgħax mitluba mill-banek li finalment huma kruċjali
għall-industrija lokali, speċjalment għan-negozji żgħar u medji fejn ir-rizorsi
huma limitati hafna. 

L-Onorevoli Schembri  informa li l-Kumitat dwar l-Affarijiet
Ekonomiċi u Finanzjarji beda jistħarreġ is-suġġett tar-rati tal-imgħax mitluba
mill-banek f'Malta fil-bidu ta' din is-sena, waqt laqgħa li kellu mal-Gvernatur
tal-Bank Ċentrali.  L-Onor. Schembri
spjega illi wara li jkunu kkonsultati r-rappreżentanti tad-diversi setturi
milquta, il-ħsieb hu li l-Kumitat jorganizza seminar ta' nofs ta' nhar fejn
ikunu mistednin kemm l-istakeholders ewlenin, kif ukoll rappreżentanti
tal-banek Maltin, fejn  jkunu jistgħu
jagħtu l-pożizzjoni rispettivi tagħhom. dwar ir-rati ta' imgħax applikabbli
lokalment.

Fost issues oħra li gew
diskussi ġie elenkat illi n-negozji żgħar lokali huma iktar sensittivi għal
interessi għolja mal-banek lokali u li ċ-charges tal-banek lokali huma pjuttost
għoljin meta mqabbla ma' pajjiżi oħra.  

Fi tmiem il-laqgħa,
ntlaħaq qbil li l-GRTU taghmel preżentazzjoni dwar l-Affarijiet Ekonomiċi u
Finanzjarji lill-Kumitat.

Preżenti għal-laqgħa kien
hemm is-Sur Paul Abela, President tal-GRTU, is-Sur Philip Fenech President
tat-Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Carmen Borg Eżekuttiv Ufficcju, GRTU.