Author: SME Chamber

The EU Council is currently discussing the potential of
EU-China negotiations for an Agreement that would include investment protection
and market access in invest­ment and certain sectors of temporary movement of
persons (intra-corporate transferees and business visitors). Any comments on doing trade with China should be
sent on .

Business opportunities from resource efficient
production is the focus of the visit to China by European Commission
Vice-President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship,
and Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for Environment. Green growth is now high on
the political agenda for the EU and China – both are interested in achieving
sustainable growth while maintaining and improving the state of their
respective environments.

A Commission proposal to restrict the use of Fipronil,
an insecticide which has recently been identified as posing an acute risk to
Europe's honey bee population, was backed by Member State experts meeting in
the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

The European Commission is taking action to improve
Union-wide prosecution of criminals who defraud EU taxpayers by establishing a
European Public Prosecutor's Office. Its exclusive task will be to investigate
and prosecute and, where relevant, bring to judgement – in the Member States'
courts – crimes affecting the EU budget.

On 17 July, the so-called
CRD IV package which transposes -via a Regulation and a Directive- the new
global standards on bank capital (the Basel III agreement) into EU law will
enter into force. The new rules which will apply from 1 January 2014 tackle
some of the vulnerabilities shown by the banking institutions during the
crisis, namely the insufficient level of capital, both in quantity and in
quality, resulting in the need for unprecedented support from national
authorities.

Meta tfasslet il-Ligi tar-Relazjonijiet tal-Impjieg u
Relazzjonijiet Industrijali, il-Ministru responsabbli dak inhar kien ferm
attent u zamm konsultazzjoni sakemm kwazi kien impossibbli li jaghmel aktar
biex intlahaq ftehim bejn l-imsiehba socjali u il-Gvern biex il-Ligi tkun tista
tithaddem bl-inqas intoppi possibbli. U hekk gara matul is-snin li ilha tahdem
il-Ligi. Twaqqaf ukoll Bord tar-Relazzjonijiet Dwar ix-Xoghol li fih hemm
rapprezentati l-imsiehba socjali ewlenin kollha u kull ligi li l-Gvern jipproponi
jew kull haga li tigi mill-Unjoni Ewropea kif wkoll kull strategija jew bidla
fil-politika tal-Gvern kienet tigi diskussa.

Issa tela' Gvern Laburista li minnu wiehed kien jistenna
aktar partecipazzjoni mill-imsiehba socjali fil-politika dwar ix-xoghol u
l-ewwel rajna talba stramba ghal ahhar biex ic-Chairmen tat-Tribunali
Industrijali, kollha nies mahtura ghall-integrita taghhom u bi ftehim
mal-imsiehba socjali u maghzula b'interessi u esperjenzi bejn wiehed u iehor
ugwali bejn esperti fil-qasam ta' min ihaddem u ta' min jirraprrezenta
il-haddiema, u issa decizjoni mill-Gvern li jahtar bhala Chairmen individwi
zbilancjati b'mod esagerat favur ir-rapprezentanza tal-haddiema u x'uhud
b'konflitt ta' interess kbir ghaliex jaqghu taht influwenza diretta tal- akbar
employer ta' Malta, is-settur pubbliku. Aghar min hekk imma il-Gvern nehha
b'daqqa ta' pinna individwi li ghalkemm kellhom is-sigurta tal-post ghal
perjodu li ghalih kienu imlahhqa u kellhom ir-rispett ta' kull min resaq
quddiemhom u ta' min hadem maghhhom fit-tribunali.

Ghall-GRTU din hi xi haga li ma tista taqbel maghha
qatt. Wara hafna snin il-GRTU irnexxiela tizgura li fost ic-Chairmen ikun hemm
persuna li ghandha esperjenza diretta fil-qasam imprenditorjali tal-intraprizi
zghar u li prattika fil-kwistjonijiet ta' intraprizi tal-artigjanat. Is-Sinjura
Joan Haber li kienet nominata mill-GRTU u accettata mill-imsiehba socjali
kollha u mill-Gvern hi intrapritendici min Ghawdex b'esperjenza kbira
fl-intrapriza zghira u b'esperjenza kbira bhala persuna li thaddem. Hi mara u
min Ghawdex u tat lit-Tribunal esperjenza utli li kienet mhux tant qawwija
qabel. Kull min mill-qrib raha tahdem bhala Chairman tat-Tribunal kullhad
accetta kemm kienet  korretta, gentili u
ppreparata.  Meta intalbet biex toffri
ir-rizenja ghalkemm il-parir legali li kellha kien li tirrifjuta il-pressjoni
ghax hi fiha innifisa offiza skond il-ligi, hi b'umilta accettat.

Is-Sinjura Haber u ic-Chairmen l-ohra qatt ma kellhom
jkun suggetti ghal xi forma ta' pressjoni. Hi qatt ma kella tigi soggetta ghal
pressjoni biex toffri r-rizenja ghax tokkupa post li bhal dak ta' Mhallef
m'ghandu jkun qatt suggettat ghall-pressjoni ghax jekk jaccetta awtomatikament
isir zlejali. Is-Segretarju Permanenti bhala gwardjan tal-ligi u tal-procedura
koretti kellu jara li pressjoni bhal dik ma ssirx u  mhux ikun strumentali biex issir. Li saret
qabel jekk saret m'hijiex skuza. Il-pajjiz il-quddiem irid jimxi u mhux ihares
lura. Il-GRTU kienet tistenna li s-Sinjura Haber tigi mitluba u tkompli u
ghalhekk ma hassistx li ghandha taghmel nominazzjonijiet godda ghax anke
bic-Chairmen l-ohra mitluba jirrezenjaw ma kienx hemm problemi u ghall-GRTU ma
kienx hemm postijiet vakanti.

Kapaci kemm huma kapaci, il-GRTU ma trid tnaqqas
il-meritu ta' hadd, nies li zammew pozizzjonijiet f'settur tat-trade unions jew
mal-Gvern jew mal-Employers Associations m'ghandhomx jinhattru Chairman jekk
mhux b'kunsens unanimu u f'cirkostanzi eccezzjonali. Ic-Chairmen m'ghandux
ikollu pozizzjonijiet fis-settur pubbliku u ghandu ikun hemm bilanc fin-numru
totali bejn dawk b'esperjenza fil-kamp ta' min ihaddem u tat-trade unions u
b'rapprzentanza ta' individwi mil-qasam tal-intrapriza iz-zghira li f'pajjizna
jaghmlu 98% tal-intraprizi kollha u jhaddmu 77% tal-haddiema kollha li jahdmu.

Il-GRTU tappella il-Gvern biex jaghraf jimxi b'mod
dekoruz biex f'Malta jkollna l-ahjar relazzjoni tax-xoghol kif jixraq lil
pajjiz b'ekonomoja moderna membru tal-Unjoni Ewropeja.

Lucrative
fees to process card transactions are to be capped under a proposal by the
European Union's executive aiming to draw a line under a battle with payment
groups such as Visa Europe and MasterCard.

Under a draft
European Commission plan, a ceiling would be introduced for charges on all
consumer debit and credit card transactions, scaling back a multi billion euro
revenue stream for EU banks.

The measure stops
short of a full ban on debit card fees, a more far-reaching intervention
envisaged in earlier drafts. Even so, the assault on fees will be a setback for
the payments industry, which has warned it will raise banking fees for
consumers rather than cut retail prices.

In addition, the
draft plan requires payment card schemes and the entities that process
transactions to be legally separated – a forced split that would remake the
business model for the main payment groups.

The Commission
proposes a 0.2 per cent ceiling on all consumer debit transactions and 0.3per
cent cap on credit card transactions, introduced after a two-year transition
period where the ceiling applies only to cross-border fees.

According to
Commission estimates, this will cut total EU debit card fees from around €4.8bn
to €2.5bn, and credit card fees from €5.7bn to €3.5bn.

The cap is broadly
based on the proposed antitrust deals with Visa and MasterCard and aims to give
"legal clarity" but it reaches deeper into domestic card markets, where fees
can vary dramatically. Typical debit card fees range from 0.1 per cent in
Denmark to 1.6 per cent in Poland. Average credit card rates in Germany stand
at 1.8 per cent, compared to 0.5 per cent in France.

– on measures facilitating the exercise of rights
conferred on workers in the context of freedom of movement for workers – As a matter of principle, GRTU
welcomes measures facilitating free movement of workers within the European
Union. In order to facilitate a better enforcement and implementation of the
various pre-existing directives and regulations dealing with the free movement
of workers, the new proposed directive should use existing infrastructures and
bodies already in place for rights enforcement and information provision.

GRTU acknowledges that
free movement of workers within the EU can be one of the important means for:

However in order to fully grasp
the economic benefits of freedom of movement for workers and to avoid unfair
competition, GRTU considers that it is equally important to complement it with
a correct and full enforcement of rules within the single market. This should
notably apply in the case of posting of workers. In the same way, GRTU recalls
the need to tackle the risks of fraud and breach of what has been qualified as
"social tourism".

As regularly highlighted,
European citizens including European workers are still showing a rather low
mobility rate. According to the Eurobarometer on free movement for workers only
10% of European citizens have worked in another Member State in 2011, but more
than half of the EU population is simply not interested in working abroad. The
main reasons for that are the language barriers and family considerations.

GRTU sees it necessary to put
more efforts  into dissemination of
information, changing mindsets, making people more aware of work and career
opportunities abroad as well as on their rights and obligations, which is one
of the EURES network's main tasks. This might also be supported by more active
foreign language learning.

As a good means to promote
mobility of workers within the EU, GRTU would like to emphasise the importance
of fostering learning mobility of young people during their education pathways
notably for those in vocational education and training. Having a mobility
experience duly recognised in education should become the rule. The
implementation of the European Credit

Transfer Systems in Vocational
Education and training (ECVET) is the right way forward.

On the current proposal for a
directive, GRTU takes note of the four objectives:

Lessening
discrimination against EU migrant workers on the grounds of nationality

Closing
the gap between EU migrant workers' rights on paper and their exercise in
practice

Reducing
the incidence of unfair practices against EU migrant workers

Empowering
EU migrant workers to ensure their rights are respected

However while supporting the
main objectives GRTU would like to insist on the importance to prevent and
tackle unfair competition for small companies as well as to apply the European
commitments for a simplification and better regulation agenda. It should
materialise in this new legislative proposal by avoiding red tape, new
administrative obligations and additional requirements for small businesses.

GRTU positively assesses the
current EC proposal for facilitating the freedom of movement of workers, which
we consider being too low in Europe while avoiding unfair competition.

However this might also be a
good opportunity to further assess existing national legislation and apply the
simplification and better regulation agenda if need be.

Green MT the national authorised
waste packaging compliance scheme, has set out an educational campaign targeted
at students who are in the summer months attending KLABB 3 – 16. Kristina
Casolani and Eco councillor Romina Schemri are taking care of this three week
long campaign which will take them across 20 centres in Malta and 3 centres in
Gozo.

Teaching young students
from a tender age about minimising waste and separating waste and recycling is
the primary target of this campaign. Hands on experience is being provided by
having actual coloured separation bins on site and students are given material
resources i.e. plastic bottles, metal cans, carton and asked to deposit in the
correct coloured bin.

Green MT continues on
these educational campaigns with vigour. We believe that it is only through education
that future generations can be much better then we are today in relation to
environmental issues.

Green MT currently has
just over 1300 producer members who financially contribute so that the scheme
effects their environmental obligations in respect to packaging waste
regulations.

Any producer interested
in joining the scheme is to contact us on 21232881 or 79002263.