Author: SME Chamber

The proposal for a directive to amend
rules on honey (Council Directive 2001/110/EC) to clarify the nature of pollen
was adopted by the European Commission last week. In the proposal pollen are
defined as a natural constituent of honey and not as an ingredient (in line
with international WTO standards) and therefor EU labelling rules requiring a
list of ingredients would not apply.

After amendment of the directive GMO
legislation will remain fully applicable to honey containing GM pollen. Honey
containing GM pollen can be placed on the market only if it is covered by an
authorisation under the legislation. Furthermore, the labelling rules on GMO in
food will also be applicable: Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 states the presence
of material containing, consisting of produced from authorised GMOs in food
shall be labelled except where that presence does not exceed 0,9% of each
ingredient.

Background

This issue arose in the context of a
challenge by a German beekeeper on the legal status of honey when his honey was
found to contain pollen of MON 810 genetically modified maize. The German Court
referred the case to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. On
6 September 2011, the European Court of Justice issued its judgement where it
indicated that: a) the previous understanding of the scope of GMO legislation
was wrong (this legislation was fully applicable to GM pollen in honey) and b)
that pollen in honey was to be considered as an ingredient.

As announced in the Report on
"Minimizing regulatory burden for SMEs – Adapting EU regulation to the needs of
micro-enterprises" (COM (2011) 803 final), the Commission launched this week a
public consultation to identify the TOP
10 most burdensome legislative acts for SMEs.

The consultation also targets
individual Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. It will stay open until 21 December 2012.

GRTU will be replying to the Commission
consultation and would like the views of the private sector.

You will find below the link to the
consultation.

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/public-consultation-new/index_en.htm

On 18^th October a delegation of Sicilian companies will be
coming over to attend GreenBUILD Malta
2012 and members are invited to participate at this event that will be
held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in St Julians.

GreenBUILD
Malta 2012 is a morning
conference on how to revitalise the Maltese construction industry.  This
will be followed by lunch and individual 1-to-1 meetings in the
afternoon. 

Maltese companies operating in the
construction industry and ancillary services [including developers, architects,
designers, etc..] are encouraged to attend, together with SMEs from the
renewable energy sector.

There is no registration fee and
participants will be invited to a networking reception in the evening.

If interested kindly contact GRTU to
help you with your registration.

Laqgha ta' Konsultazzjoni – Nixtieq ninfurmak li l-Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee
(MEUSAC) flimkien mal-Awtorità ta' Malta għall-Kompetizzjoni u għall-Affarijiet
tal-Konsumatur (MCCAA) se jorganizzaw laqgħa ta' konsultazzjoni dwar il-Pjan
ta' Azzjoni Nazzjonali dwar l-użu sostenibbli tal-pestiċidi. L-għan ta' dan
il-Pjan hu li jgħin fit-tnaqqis tar-riskji u l-impatti tal-użu tal-pestiċidi
fuq is-saħħa tal-bniedem u fuq l-ambjent.

L-iskop ta' din il-laqgħa ta' konsultazzjoni hu li jinġabru
opinjonijiet mingħand dawk involuti, jew interessati f'dan is-settur qabel ma
dan il-pjan jiġi ffinalizzat.

Il-laqgħa ser tinżamm nhar
il-Ħamis, 18 ta' Ottubru 2012, fis-2 ta' waranofsinhar, fis-Sala tal-Kunsill
Lokali tan-Naxxar. Din il-laqgħa ser issir bil-Malti.

Jekk tixtieq tattendi, inti ġentilment mitlub tikteb
lill-MEUSAC mhux aktar tard minn nofsinhar tal-Erbgħa, 17 ta' Ottubru 2012 fuq
l-indirizz elettroniku .

A Spanish Delegation will be visiting
Malta on the 24^th October. This is an opportunity for you to meet
them in person and discuss possible cooperation. The sectors they will be
coming from are:

Indifferent to the continuous
pressure by the GRTU since the announcement that the Employment Aid Programme
(EAP) scheme was going to be halted, the EAP scheme is till today still closed.
The authorities` justification of halting the scheme was that it had been
over-subscribed, pure mismanagement, and that employers seemed disinterested to
getting their refunds back, which we find very hard to believe. The
announcement came in May and till today the scheme is still closed.

The scheme was very beneficial for
SMEs to employ. It was a scheme that bridged the gap between education and
unemployment and the world of work. 7 groups identified as disadvantaged groups
were the target: youths under 25 and within 2 years of completing full-time
education and have not yet obtained a first regular paid employment, any
persons that have been absent from work and education for more than 2 years, a
single adult looking after dependents, any person who has not attained upper
secondary level qualifications and made redundant during the last 6 months,
person older than 50 who does not have a job, long term registered unemployed,
any person having a registered disability.

Thanks to the EAP these 7 groups
found their way into the world of work and the figures were very satisfying. At
a time when Europe is in wide alarm on unemployment levels, especially youth
unemployment, the Maltese Authorities felt comfortable closing this scheme.
What was the result? Unemployment figures started going up.

Statistics issued by NSO on 3^rd
October 2012 state "that in August, the number of persons registering as
unemployed in Malta and Gozo stood at 6,139 and 682 respectively. Accordingly,
during the twelve-month period to August, the number of registered unemployed
went up by 352 on the mainland and by 4 in Gozo". When analyzing statistics
into more detail one would realise that persons registering for employment
during July 2012 stood at 6,664 and during August 2012 it stood at 6,821. An
increase of 157 in one month.

GRTU had strongly opposed closing the
scheme from the very beginning. If mistakes were made they had to be corrected
and therefore we agreed that a stock take needed to be taken but this was made
at the expense of job seekers and employers. GRTU argued that an immediate
solution had to be found and whatever the reason it had to be put aside and
solved but the scheme had to be kept open even if it meant putting in
Government funds.

We are reaching stagnation. The
extremely efficient schemes operated by Malta Enterprise help enterprises
create projects and invest in their business but employers are feeling the lack
of an appropriate employment incentive which is halting progress, expansion and
employment.

GRTU calls on Minister Cristina to
take the issue under hand and see to what needs to be done to what needs to be
done to reinstate the scheme with immediate effect.

GRTU has also included the permanent
reinstatement of the EAP together with other measures in our budget proposals.
The Ministry for Finance, the Ministry for SMEs and the Ministry for Employment
need to come together to make this work. Those that hold power are responsible
to ensure Malta does not fall into the unemployment trends like so many other
EU countries.

Vincent Farrugia GRTU Director General,
has participated organized by ENFI: Leader or Follower-Europe in the multipolar
world, as member of the Employers Bureau of EESC and as EESC rapporteur on five
opinions related to the Single Market.

They would appreciate to be informed
whether there are any specific concerns or sensitivities for Maltese economic
and industrial sectors, in particular in relation to offensive and defensive interests
by 4 October 2012.

More specifically, there may be
concerns in relation to exports of tuna, electronics, the import of cars and
the industry involved in car parts, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and
non-tariff barriers in relation thereto.

Contact Abigail Mamo @ GRTU for more
information.

According to the survey, carried out
last June in all EU Member States, there was a 9% increase over November 2011
in the number of citizens who look at the EU in a positive way. Moreover, half
of those questioned, described their countries' membership of the EU as a ‘good
thing'.

In terms of the sense of identity felt
by those questioned, the survey shows that there has been an increase in the
number of Europeans who regard themselves only in terms of their national
identity, rather than identifying themselves as being both citizens of their
country and European. This is not the case for Malta as 60% of Maltese citizens
still consider themselves as both Maltese and European. Only 37% of the
population considers itself as ‘only Maltese'.

The degree of knowledge about the EU
and its institutions is relatively poor, with the majority of Europeans saying
they know little about them and more than a third of them unable to name three
EU institutions.

However, it is noteworthy that the
European Parliament was the institution most often mentioned by respondents and
was rated as the institution that best represents the EU. Surprisingly, a
quarter of Europeans already know the date of the next European elections –
June 2014.

Job creation and fighting unemployment
(EU 72%; Malta 56%), reducing Member States' public debt (EU 37%; Malta 50%)
and increasing purchasing power and combating inflation (EU 35%; Malta 42%)
came in as the top priority anti-crisis measures for EU citizens.