Author: SME Chamber

The European Parliament has adopted a non-legislative resolution that called for action to halve food waste by 2025 and improve access to food by the needy. According to EU Commission figures, households, supermarkets and restaurants, along with the rest of the food supply chain, are currently wasting up to 50% of edible food. To combat such waste, which is occurring at all stages in the chain, MEPs have called on the commission to implement a coordinated strategy combining EU-wide and national measures to improve the efficiency of the food supply and consumption chains sector by sector – and to tackle food wastage as a matter of urgency.

 

The resolution laid out areas which such a strategy would need to address. New awareness campaigns should be run at both EU and national levels to inform the public how to avoid wasting food. In addition the resolution called for Member States to introduce school and college courses explaining how to store, cook and dispose of food and also exchange best practices to this end. MEPs also called for 2014 to be designated as "European year against food waste".

The EU27 currently wastes 89 million tonnes of food each year – equivalent to 179 kg per person. In an effort to tackle this still growing problem the resolution called for the adoption of dual-date labelling to show when food may be sold until (sell-by date) and until when it should be consumed by (use-by date). It was claimed that this would help to avoid situations in which retailers offer food too close to its expiry date – thus increasing the potential for wastage.

MEP, Liam Aylward (Fianna Fáil, Ireland), who negotiated on behalf of the Alliance of Liberal Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group, said: "It is outrageous that almost 90 million tonnes of perfectly fine food gets wasted each year while an estimated 79 million people in the EU live beneath the poverty line and around 16 million depend on food aid from charitable institutions."

Furthermore, public institutions should favour responsible caterers. According to the resolution public procurement rules for catering and hospitality should be updated to ensure that where possible, contracts are awarded to catering companies that use local produce and give away or redistribute leftover food to poorer people or food banks free of charge, rather than just disposing of it.

"To improve resource efficiency at all stages of the supply chain we need both a coordinated EU strategy as well as sharing of best practices across Member States. Most importantly, however, all players in the food supply chain need to be brought on board and help devise guidelines to improve efficiency and minimise waste," added Aylward.

However, retail, wholesale and international trade representative, EuroCommerce pointed out that official reports from the EU Commission suggest that the commerce sector is responsible for only 5.5% of total food waste, but added that commerce recognised that all actors in the supply chain must take measures to combat waste and be willing to assume their share of responsibility.

According to the organisation, thanks to modern distribution techniques, just in time delivery has led to a better working of supply and consumer demand, and actions have also been taken by retailers to recover food that can no longer be eaten for use as a feedstock in energy production.

EuroCommerce director general Christian Verschueren commented: "The commerce sector has long engaged in practices designed to help consumers reduce their food waste, such as promotion of information in stores and the development of awareness-raising campaigns. Retailers have voluntarily taken on this responsibility and we are glad the European Parliament recognises our commitment through such platforms as the Retail Forum for Sustainability."

Meanwhile, representative of the food and drinks industry, FoodDrinkEurope said that its members welcomed the acknowledgement of the role that packaging can play in preventing food waste and the need for clarification on date labels to help raise consumer awareness and knowledge. However, it added that in order to compare data and design food waste policy measures across EU Member States, efforts to improve the consistency of reporting on the figures and waste categories used by some Member States could have been highlighted.

The recently published Legal Notice 117 of 2010 – Part-Time Employees (Amendment) Regulations, 2010 which came into force on the 12th March 2010 have changed significantly the contents of this leaflet. The definition of ‘Part-Time Employee' was also revised on 16^th March 2010 by amendments made to the various Wage Regulation Orders. The important changes as listed below have affected part-time employment and the relevant regulations now apply to all part-time employees, irrespective if the part time employment is their principal or their secondary employment.

 

Who is to be considered a Part-Time Employee?

A part-time employee is one whose normal hours of work, calculated on a weekly basis or on an average over a period of employment of up to one year, are less than the normal hours of work of a comparable whole-time employee and who is not a whole-time employee with reduced hours.

In this regard, an employer should ensure that the total number of hours worked by a part time employee over a period of one year, do not reach or exceed the total number of normal hours (excluding overtime) worked by a comparable whole-time employee over the same one year period. If the total number of hours worked by the part-time employee equal or exceed those of a comparable whole-time employee, then that employee shall thenceforth be considered as a whole-time employee.

Eligibility for Pro-rata entitlements

The pro-rata entitlements apply to part-time employees as follows:

1. as from 12th March 2010, to all part-time employees who are engaged as such.

2. as from 12th September 2010, in the case of part-time employees whose part-time employment is one in respect of which social security contributions are not payable in terms of the Social Security Act, who were already in part-time employment prior to 12th March 2010 and were still in their part-time employment on the latter date.

Those part-time employees who were already eligible to pro rata entitlements prior to 12^th March 2010 and were still in their part-time employment on 12th March 2010 will continue to enjoy such pro-rata entitlements after 12th March 2010.

Equal Treatment

With respect to the entitlement of a part time employee for the same rate of pay as applicable to the comparable whole-time employee, the recent amendments have further clarified that:

1. where the weekly hours of work exceed the normal weekly hours of a comparable whole time employee, any such hours are to be paid at the same rate as that applicable to the comparable whole-time employee.

2. any hours worked on Sundays and Public Holidays, including hours worked within the normal schedule or hours worked in excess of the normal schedule of a comparable whole-time employee, any such hours are to be paid at the same rate as that applicable to the comparable whole-time employee.

 

Double non-taxation deprives Member States of significant revenues and creates unfair competition between businesses in the Single Market. It occurs when cross-border companies escape paying taxes due to mismatches between national tax systems. Aggressive tax planners often focus on exploiting loopholes between Member States' systems specifically to avoid taxes.

 

As a first step in combating this problem, the Commission has today launched a public consultation on the double non-taxation of cross-border companies. The aim of the consultation is to gauge the full scale of the problem and see where the main weaknesses lie. On this basis, the Commission will develop the most appropriate policy response before the end of 2012. In order to encourage participation by those who may have insight into real-life exploitation of double non-taxation by companies, anonymous contributions will be accepted. The consultation is available in all official EU languages and will run until May 30 2012.

Algirdas Šemeta, Commissioner for Taxation, Customs, Anti-fraud and Audit, said: "Fairness must be at the heart of our tax policies. Double non-taxation undermines fair burden sharing in taxation and allows an unjust competitive advantage to companies that seek to exploit it.  Tackling double non-taxation will not only deliver important revenues to Member States, but it will also ensure a stronger, fairer Single Market for all EU businesses."

The public consultation covers cross-border double non-taxation of companies i.e. cases where divergent national rules and/or inadequate national tax measures in two countries lead to non-taxation. For example, this may be the case if two countries define entities in a different way, resulting in income not being taxed in either state. The consultation concerns direct taxes such as corporate income taxes, non-resident income taxes, capital gains taxes, withholding taxes, inheritance taxes and gift taxes.

The Commission asks all interested parties including tax professionals in practice, in business and in academia for factual examples of double non-taxation within the EU and in relations with third countries.

Background

In the Annual Growth Survey 2012, the Commission acknowledged that Member States have to consider revenue-raising measures. Better tax coordination at the EU-level has a role to play in this context.

The European Council conclusions of 24 June 2011 asked the Commission to ensure the avoidance of harmful practices and proposals to fight tax fraud and tax evasion.  

The Commission set out in the Communication on Double Taxation in the Single Market that in a period when Member States are looking for secure and additional tax revenues, it is important for their credibility towards their taxpayers that they take the necessary measures to remove double taxation and double non-taxation.

Contributions may be sent to   no later than 30 May 2012.

For the consultation paper see :

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/consultations/tax/index_en.htm

The European Commission has published its second Trade and Investment Barriers Report, which describes the progress achieved in dismantling barriers to the markets of six strategic economic partners – China, India, Japan, Mercosur, Russia and the US.

The report recognises some success stories in the removal of certain trade barriers, such as in India, but also underlines the overall persistence of barriers for European business to access key markets.  Dismantling these barriers would improve and open up new export and investment opportunities for European companies and people. The report will be presented to the European Council on 1-2 March.

"With protectionism an ever present threat, we need to make sure that trade remains open in order to boost jobs and growth. Today's report shows that our enforcement strategy is paying off in fighting unfair barriers to trade and investment; yet, we need to strengthen our vigilance and double our efforts in order to make sure that openness is maintained worldwide. The EU's commitment to ensuring trade openness remains firm", stated EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.

The Trade and Investment Barriers Report 2012 assesses the progress achieved on the 21 barriers which were selected in 2011 in the first edition of the report:

Two trade barriers were fully removed in India: export restrictions on cotton and security requirements for telecommunication equipments.

Progress was achieved in:

China: indigenous innovation and export restrictions on raw materials (on the latter, WTO Appellate Body report confirmed the incompatibility of the Chinese measures with WTO rules and China's WTO accession commitments IP/12/87)

India: sanitary and phytosanitary rules

Japan: government access to procurement and regulatory requirements for medical devices

USA: 100% scanning of containers and "Buy American"

-No positive movement could be seen in the following cases:

China: investment catalogue and IT security

India: equity caps

Japan: financial services

Argentina and Brazil: restrictions in maritime transport and export restrictions on raw materials

Argentina: import licensing

Brazil: 25% preference margin in government procurement.

A specific section of the report is dedicated to Russia due to the nature of the WTO accession process, which can potentially lead to the removal of the selected priority barriers (trade-related investment measures in automotive and car components sector; customs practices; Intellectual Property related issues; Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues).

The report also identifies 6 new priorities of barriers to trade and investment:

China: national security review mechanism for mergers and acquisitions involving foreign investors and export financing and subsidies

India: National Manufacturing Policy

Brazil: tax on industrial products (IPI) and import procedures for textiles and clothing

Argentina: restrictions in reinsurance services.

 

The report highlights a recent trend in emerging economies where industrial policies contain trade-restrictive elements. These often take the form of:

local content requirements (such as in investment policy and government procurement),

overly burdensome standardisation and conformity assessment requirements, which discriminates against foreign products,

measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative import restrictions,

and export restrictions particularly applied to raw materials.

Background

The Trade and Investment Barriers Report is part of a broader enforcement strategy that aims at ensuring that the EU's trade partners abide by their commitments and maintain open markets. The purpose of the report is to focus attention on efforts needed – including at the highest political level – to ensure market access for European companies in important markets outside the EU. In order to make this effort more effective, the Member States also have to share it by conveying commonly agreed messages in their bilateral contacts with these countries.

The report is a vehicle to set priorities on an annual basis among the market access barriers to 6 key trading partners (China, India, Japan, Mercosur, Russia and the US) and provides an assessment of progress achieved. These 6 countries together covered 45.7% of the EU's trade in goods in 2011 and 44.8% of EU's trade in commercial services in 2010. As far as foreign direct investment is concerned, these countries counted for 47.7% of EU's FDIs in 2010.

For further information:

Trade and Investment Barriers Report 2012
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/149143.htm

Trade and Investment Barriers Report 2011
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/147629.htm

On the Market Access Strategy

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/trade-topics/market-access/index_en.htm

MEUSAC together with MEPA are organising and information session on regulations that emend existing laws on waste management for end of life vehicles. These regulations are necessary so as to bring into force the amendments to the Directive of the European Union for the year 2000 on vehicles which are no longer in use (Directive 2000/53/EC). This Directive stipulates measures for the prevention of waste from vehicles and for the renewed use, recycling, and other forms of recovery of vehicles that are no longer in use, including their components, so that the waste is separated.

 

The aim of this information session is to inform the affected parties of the obligations under the amendments. This meeting should be of particular interest to importers and agents of vehicles as well as manufacturers of materials and other related to production of vehicles.

The session will be held in Maltese:

Venue: Dar L-Ewropa, 254, St Paul's Street, Valletta
Date: Monday 5th March 2012
Time: 10.00am

 Registration is required. Contact GRTU for further information.

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON DIRECTIVE

Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles1 (ELV) as transposed by Legal Notice 99 of 2004 aims to reduce the amount of waste from end-of-life vehicles. In particular it:

1. restricts the use of certain heavy metals in the manufacture of new vehicles;

2. requires the establishment of adequate systems for the collection of ELVs;

3. states that owners must be able to have their complete ELVs accepted by these systems free of charge, even when they have a negative value provided it still contains the essential components of a vehicle, in particular the engine and the coachwork and does not contain waste which has been added to the end-of life vehicle.

4. requires producers (vehicle manufacturers or importers) to pay ‘all or a significant part' of the costs of take back for complete ELVs with a negative or no value;

5. requires that ELVs are stored (even temporarily) and can only be treated/dismantled at authorised treatment facilities, which must meet tightened environmental treatment standards;

6. introduces a Certificate of Destruction system for the removal of a scrapped vehicle from the national register; and

7. requires that certain components are marked to aid recovery and recycling, and that the relevant information is provided to aid dismantling.

In addition, Article 4 of Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles prohibits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent Chromium in materials and components of vehicles put on the market after 1 July 2003 other than in cases listed in Annex II under the conditions specified therein. The aim is to prevent their release into the environment, make recycling easier, and avoid the need to dispose of hazardous waste, exemption/prohibition of materials and components.

Annex II of Directive 2000/53/EC has been amended a number of times by means of Commission Decisions. However, the European Commission has recently adopted Commission Directive 2011/37/EU2 which further amends this Annex II to Directive 2000/53/EC.

Commission Directive 2011/37/EU of 30 March 2011 amending Annex II to Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on end-of-life vehicles:

1. includes new exemptions to enable the repair of vehicles with parts containing heavy metals, when in certain cases it is technically impossible to repair vehicles with spare parts other than original ones

2. prolongs the expiry dates for certain materials and components containing lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium until the use of the prohibited substances becomes avoidable

3. includes labelling requirements for certain materials or components in accordance with Article 4(2)(b)(iv)

4. includes temporary exemptions from prohibitions for the use of lead in automotive thermoelectric materials in applications reducing CO2 emissions by recuperation of exhaust heat since it is currently technically and scientifically unavoidable

5. continues to provide exemptions without an expiry data for certain materials and components containing lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent, since the use of such substances in the specific materials and components listed in Annex II to that Directive is still technically or scientifically unavoidable.

6. removes existing exemptions including the removal of a general exemption from "solder in electronic circuit boards and other electric applications", to specific exemptions; the removal of the exemption for "copper in friction materials of brake linings containing more than 0.4% lead by weight; the removal of a general exemption from "electrical components which contain lead in a glass or ceramic matrix compound except glass in bulbs and glaze of spark plugs" to specific exemptions; the replacement of thick film pastes as regards to cadmium with that for batteries for electrical vehicles (cadmium).

2. NATIONAL REGULATIONS

Malta will be transposing the above listed provisions into its national regulations and would like to inform affected parties about the relevant obligations. The draft Legal Notice may be viewed on: http://www.mepa.org.mt/waste_elv.

GRTU President Paul Abela participated on behalf of GRTU to the Malta Enterprise business Delegation to South Africa. It is important for the GRTU to take part in such delegations so that we ensure Malta is marketed correctly and opportunities for members are not missed.

Other than being an immensely beautiful country South Africa has good business opportunities such as in renewable energy, agriculture, food and beverages, financial services, etc.. There are several who are seriously interested to invest in Malta. They have very good infrastructure and are very organised.

They are the major investors in Africa. They were very interested in hearing about the schemes for small businesses such as loan Guarantee and employment schemes.

Why did you become an entrepreneur? You could say I'm an accidental entrepreneur as I never had anyone in my family connected in any way with business. After 38 years in business, I'm still fascinated and thrilled when I come up with an idea and manage to sell it profitably.

 

How have you come to chose your line of business?

I suppose the creative side of me that eventually pushed me towards the printing trade. When I started, artworks were all done manual since computers were virtually non-existent. Seeing my designs come into fruition is, to say the least, exhilarating!

Where did you go on your last holiday?

A lovely Italian island called Procida. It is slightly larger than our Comino. It's about an hour's ferry drive from Naples. If ever time stood still, it is absolutely here. Anyone who remembers Gozo about 35 years ago will faintly get the picture. Tranquility, Sincerity and "the living is easy" straight out of Aretha Franklin's lyrics. I recommend it to anyone to really get away from it all.

What is your earliest memory?

A remote controlled Jaguar Car I got as a present when I was about 4 years old, given to me by my father's uncle who visited Malta after 40 years abroad. It was my pride and joy for a very long time to come. Jags are still my favourite brand and hold a special soft spot till this very day for me since then!

If you could chose to be someone famous who would you be?

Mother Theresa. Not owning anything is to own everything!

GRTU is inviting members to complete the survey on funds and schemes, which involves giving opinion and experience.The aim of this survey is for us as GRTU to be able to learn in detail what are the problems for businesses when accessing funds, schemes and other benefits. We will then work to make all those concerned aware of the results and together with them work to improve funding and schemes

 

Use link:

http://grtu.net/surveys/index.php?sid=19

for your use.

The results will be published in a conference, which is being co-organised with BOV, to which you are also invited, which will offer valuable information to you as a business on:

Government's policy

Preparing an EU Funding Proposal

Managing an EU funded project

JEREMIE: the loan facility at lower collateral and guarantees

Standing a better chance when trying to access funds

Malta Enterprise schemes for business

Venue: Corinthia Palace Hotel, Attard

Date: Friday 23rd March
Time: 13.00 – 16.30

 

To reserve a seat: Contact Liz at GRTU on 21232881/3 or

We need your help in order to be able to help you!

If you have trouble accessing the survey kindly contact GRTU.

GRTU Renewable Energy Section president Noel Gauci stated that he strongly welcomes Government's decision for the feed in tariff to be paid by Government itself instead of Enemalta. The sector expects this decision to be a positive move as it will eliminate grey areas when one has to negotiate the feed in tariffs for large scale Photovoltaic projects with the Malta Resources Authority.

A new rebate scheme for domestic and commercial photovoltaic installations is needed imminently. This would avoid job losses once the installations under the current schemes are completed. Following that, an improved feed in tariff must be discussed with all stakeholders to be better prepared for the future and preferably avoid the necessity for further rebate schemes. Such an exercise should make an installation feasible enough without the need of a grant from Government.