Category: Archive – 2013

In
its Opinion approved yesterday in its Plenary Session of 10^th and 11^th July the
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) supported EU citizens and
businesses by voting in favour of doing away with bureaucratic rubber-stamping
still necessary for the recognition of public documents across EU borders. The
Opinion was adopted with 96 votes in favour, 2 votes against and 2 abstentions.

The
Opinion was presented during the same Plenary by GRTU's Director General and
EESC employers representative Vincent Farrugia, as rapporteur general on the
opinion. Being rapporteur general implied that the opinion did not go to the
Section but went directly to Plenary. In drafting his report Mr Farrugia was
supported by two co-drafters from the other two groups and an expert.

The
Opinion was presented on the Commission's proposal for a Regulation on
promoting the free movement of citizens and businesses by simplifying the
acceptance of certain public documents in the European Union COM(2013) 228
final. This followed the Eurobarometer 2010 survey which revealed that 73% of EU
citizens demanded action to facilitate free movement of public documents in the
EU. The proposal is in fact a key initiative of the European Year of Citizens
2013.

Amongst
the documents affected are civil status records such as birth, death, name,
marriage, registered partnership, parenthood and adoption as well as other
public documents concerning residence, citizenship, nationality, real estate
& intellectual property rights, proving the absence of a criminal record,
public documents of EU businesses, their legal status and representation. The
proposal will have no impact on the recognition of the content or the effects
of the documents concerned.

It
is estimated that such an initiative will have a tremendous impact. It will
affect the over 12 million European citizens working, studying or living in an
EU Member State (MS) other than their country of origin and the 7 million SMEs
that are involved in cross-border trade, have instruments abroad or
subcontracts with companies in another MS. It is estimated that the combined
savings on legislation and Apostilles (currently required for around 1.4
million documents) along with certified copies and certified translations could
be up to €330 million per year.

The
aims of the proposal are to:

Reducing practical difficulties caused by identified
administrative formalities – cutting red tape, costs and delays, rubber-
stamping – Removal of legal and apostille requirements for acceptance of
documents

Reduce translation costs – Do away with requirement for certified
translations with a simple translation of adequate quality being deemed
sufficient. Multilingual standard forms made available

Simplifying the fragmented legal framework of circulated public
documentation with Member States

Ensuring a more effective level of detection of fraud and forgery of
public documentation

Eliminating risks of discrimination among Union citizens and
businesses

The EESC has welcomed the proposal and further outlines that
the Internal Market Information System (IMIS) is an important vehicle that
should be exploited more aggressively for citizens to exercise their
fundamental rights. The EESC also stated that future simplification exercises
with regard to public documents should target important public documents such
as those related to intra- EU mobility of workers or vulnerable persons such as
persons with disabilities.

Most importantly however the new regulation should provide
citizens and businesses with the maximum degree of certainty with regards to
the extent that public documents presented are exempted from all forms of
legislation or similar formality. Therefore the EESC specified that Member
States having reasonable doubts as to the authentication of public documents
should only be limited to 3 cases: the authenticity of the signature, the
capacity in which the person signing the document has acted or the identity of
the seal or stamp. The EESC requests that should a Member State make an
official request based on reasonable doubt, it is to explicitly inform the
person or business of the reasons why such request is being made. In addition
to this the EESC also requested that should the Internal Market Information
System (IMIS) stabilise, the maximum period for a response under the
administrative cooperation mechanism should be reduced to two weeks and not one
month as was proposed by the EU Commission. In addition to this the EESC is
further asking for extra accountability through benchmarking on a yearly basis.

This is the fourth report drafted by GRTU's Director General
and accepted as EESC Opinion aimed at improving the functioning of the single
market and the removal of obstacles within the single market for citizens and
businesses.

A trade Policy that is open to the
world – Its importance as a trading power gives the European
Union considerable international influence. The EU supports the rules-based
system of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has 153 member countries.
This system provides a degree of legal certainty and transparency in the
conduct of international trade.

The WTO sets conditions under which its members
can defend themselves against unfair practices like dumping (selling below
cost) through which exporters compete against their rivals. It also provides a
procedure for settling disputes that arise between two or more trading
partners.

Since 2001, through the ‘Doha round' of trade talks,
the EU has been seeking to open up world trade. These are difficult
negotiations but the EU remains convinced that, in the wake of the financial
and economic crisis, a contraction in world trade would turn the recession into
a full-blown depression.

The EU's trade policy is closely linked to its
development policy. Under its ‘general system of preferences' (GSP), the EU has
granted duty-free or cut-rate preferential access to its market for most of the
imports from developing countries and economies in transition. It goes even
further for the world's 49 poorest countries. All of their exports, with the
sole exception of arms, enjoy duty-free entry to the EU market.

The EU does not, however, have specific trade
agreements with its major trading partners among the developed countries like
the United States and Japan. Here, trade relations are handled through the WTO
mechanisms. The United States and the European Union are seeking to develop
relations founded on equality and partnership. Following the election of Barack
Obama as US President, EU leaders have been calling for closer trans-Atlantic
ties. At the G-20 meeting in London in April 2009, the EU and US agreed on the
need for better regulation of the global financial system. The European Union
is increasing its trade with the emerging powers in other parts of the world,
from China and India to Central and South America. Trade agreements with these
countries also involve technical and cultural cooperation. China has become the
EU's second most important trading partner (after the United States) and its
biggest supplier of imports. (In 2009, more than 17% of the EU's imports came
from China). The European Union is Russia's main trading partner and its
biggest source of foreign investment. Apart from trade, the main issues in
EU-Russia relations concern cross-border matters such as the security of energy
supplies, in particular gas.

Africa

Relations between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa go
back a long way. Under the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the then colonies and
overseas territories of member states became associates of the Community.
Decolonisation, which began in the early 1960s, turned this link into a
different kind of association, one between sovereign countries.

The Cotonou Agreement, signed in 2000 in Cotonou, the
capital of Benin, marked a new stage in the EU's development policy. This
agreement between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) countries is the most ambitious and far-reaching trade and aid agreement
ever concluded between developed and developing countries. It followed on from
the Lomé Convention, which was signed in 1975 in Lomé, the capital of Togo, and
subsequently updated at regular intervals. This agreement goes significantly
further than earlier ones, since it has moved from trade relations based on
market access to trade relations in a wider sense. It also introduces new
procedures for dealing with human rights abuses.

The European Union has granted special trading
concessions to the least developed countries, 39 of which are signatories to
the Cotonou Agreement. Since 2005, they have been able to export practically
any type of product to the EU, duty free. In 2009, the EU agreed to provide the
77 ACP countries with €2.7 billion of aid in the fields of health, water,
climate change and peacekeeping.

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GRTU, Exchange Building,
Republic Street, Valletta

In consultation with social partners, EU leaders have agreed
on a comprehensive approach to combat youth unemployment. They will speed up
implementation of the "Youth Employment Initiative", which should be fully
operational by January 2014, and concentrate spending in its first two years.

Running out of
options to boost the flagging eurozone economy, the European Central Bank has
taken a leaf out of the Federal Reserve's play book and promised it is not
going to put up the cost of borrowing anytime soon and indeed could cut
interest rates further.

ECB head
Mario Draghi said: "The Governing Council took the unprecedented step to give
forward guidance in a rather more specific way than it ever did in the past. It
says the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an
extended period of time. It's the first time the Governing Council says so."

Draghi
said the decision to issue ‘forward guidance' was driven by market volatility,
which took hold after the Federal Reserve last month set out a plan to begin
slowing its stimulus.

But he would
not be more specific on how long ECB rates would stay at record lows. "It's not
six months, it's not 12 months. It's an extended period of time."

The ECB
met as political crisis in Portugal pushed the interest rates it is having to
offer on its bonds to unsustainable levels.

Draghi
said ECB rules meant it could not intervene to help, but he had encouraging
words for Lisbon: "I think Portugal has achieved very remarkable results. It
has certainly been a painful route and the results that have been achieved have
been quite significant, remarkable, if not outstanding."

The
tensions in Portugal, and in Greece, risk sapping confidence one year after
Draghi imposed some calm by vowing to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.

The Consumer
Scoreboard provides an evidence base for policy action and regulation that is
driven by a better understanding of real outcomes for consumers. It helps
policy makers to ensure that policies take better account of consumers' expectations
and concerns, and to identify priority areas to be addressed in order to
improve consumer conditions. The Consumer Scoreboard data also provide
important insights into how the markets function from the consumers'
perspective and are thus an important contribution to this process.

The
majority of the scoreboard data comes from the annual market monitoring survey
which measures consumer experiences and perceived conditions in 21 goods and 30
services markets accounting for around 60% of the household expenditure.
Consumer conditions in each market are assessed on the basis of the six main
criteria: comparability, trust, problems and complaints, satisfaction, choice
and switching.

According
to the Consumer Scoreboard, Malta comes in the 5th position in the overall
ranking. Major differences in the national Market Performance Indicator (nMPI)
and ranking were recorded this year and may be explained by the smaller base
size used for the country. 20 markets show large differences in the nMPI from
last years and 10 markets show large differences form the EU27 scores. The 2012
goods market ranking is very different from last year's. Fruit and vegetables
and clothing and footwear are rated above their 2011 levels both in terms of
nMPI and ranking. Entertainment goods, electronic products, and spectacles and
lenses are all assessed less favourably than last year, again in terms of the
nMPI and the ranking.

There
are obvious differences in the EU 27 ranking of goods markets with 5 markets
differing widely both in terms of the MPI and the ranking. The markets for the
meat and meat products, fruit ad vegetables, and clothing and footwear are
assessed better than average, while the markets for spectacles and lenses and
large household appliances are assessed worse than average.

The
service markets' ranking is rather different from the 2011 ranking. Private
life insurance is rated better than last year in terms of both the MPI and the
ranking, while gambling and lottery are considered less favourably for these
indicators.

There
are large differences in the EU 27 ranking. The largest is recorded for the
tram, local bus and metro market, with a difference of 14.3 points from the
average. This could be linked to the privatisation of the bus network. The
market assessments of bank accounts, mortgages as well as loans, credit and
credit cards are all better than average both in terms of the nMPI and the
ranking.

In May 2013 compared with April 2013, the volume of retail
trade rose by 1.0% in the euro area (EA17) and by 1.2% in the EU27, according
to estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In
April retail trade decreased by 0.2% and 0.5% respectively. In May 2013,
compared with May 2012, the retail sales index dropped by 0.1% in the euro
area, while it rose by 0.5% in the EU27.

In Malta the growth was registered at 0.3%.

The feed in tariffs scheme for industrial and commercial
scale installations which expired on June 30 has been extended for three months
pending replacement. Hence the scheme will now end on September 30. GRTU has
been the prime instigator of such a move and is therefore very pleased to see
its proposal taken up.

A Tunisian business
delegation led by the President of the Tunisian Chamber of Commerce Mr. Nejib
Mellouli paid a courtesy visit to GRTU on Thursday 27th June. GRTU's deputy
president Philip Fenech welcomed the delegation at GRTU.

The
potential of doing business between the two countries was discussed which also
led to an agreement of mutual cooperation for the promotion of agricultural and
fishing investment and trading relations between Tunisia and Malta on the basis
of cooperation and mutual benefits.

During
the meeting various types of business were discussed that could bring value
added to Tunisia and Malta.

To
the extent that self-employed choose of their own free will to run businesses
on their own account, there is no issue. Employees who become genuinely
self-employed are a normal part of the labour market and the economy.

Therefore
consideration is or should be given to how they can benefit from joint
facilities like integration into existing organisations and inclusion in
different parts of the social security systems and pension schemes, health and
safety in the workplace and accessibility to vocational training institutions.
If
the change is however not based on a genuinely free choice of self-employed
status, social risks are in practice transferred from the firm to the
individual workers. This leads to abuses ranging from evasion of social security
contributions, through tax evasion and abuse of labour rights, to undeclared
work. This is a serious distortion of competition for the genuinely
self-employed, micro businesses and SMEs.

The
real issue is of protecting genuine self-employed against the abuse of their
status by two different groups:

1.       The employers who continue to recruit
workers in precarious conditions to offer cut-price services against
competitors

2.       Free riders who under the guise of
self-employed act in direct competition with genuine self-employed without
abiding to tax, standards and other licensing and wages regulations, succeeding
in eating away substantial ratio of markets at the expense of the genuine
self-employed who abide by all applicable laws.

In
this regard it would be useful if especially problematic sectors were
identified, where such abuse occurs most frequently, and standards of work are
agreed upon that would serve as guidelines for the sector.

The
competitiveness of genuine enterprises must be safeguarded and placing further
burdens on working regulations will do more harm than good to bona fide
self-employed and micro businesses. Reliable regulation is the safeguard itself
to sham self-employment. Sham self-employment should be combated through better
registration and monitoring of the real position in the labour market. Malta's
labour regulations are strong enough to avoid abuses of self-employment and no
further regulation is required. What is required is tackling directly
problematic sectors and helping them abide by the current regulations.

Public
procurement must ensure it does not reward any abuses to further tackle unfair
situations. We however strongly object to regulations that in any way reduce
the opportunities of subcontracting to self-employed and small firms. Any
proposal in this direction would completely disregard the way contracts are
performed in Malta. The vast majority of contracts in the public or private
sector are mainly of joint ventures between major contractors or enterprises
with the ability to work on major contracts, and a vast array of small firms
and genuine self-employed who work on a subcontracting basis. This is a right
that is given by various EU legislation so much so that 420K of micro and small
firms in the EU participate in subcontracting across border within the EU
single market. Maltese legislation cannot hold SMEs from other EU member states
from competing for subcontracts on public sector tenders and it will be
completely unacceptable if while other EU businesses can compete Maltese
self-employed and small firms are prohibited.

The
issue for GRTU remains one of the abuse of the self-employed status. This is
too widespread and GRTU has been insisting all along to provide the necessary
institutional structures to minimize or abolish this abuse.