Category: Archive – 2013

The Tunisian
Business Council together with Malta Enterprise and GRTU, would like to invite
interested parties to participate at a Business Forum on Thursday, 27th June
2013 at 09:00am. The
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Center in Tunisia is leading a
delegation of Tunisian businessmen from various sectors seeking to build
commercial links with Maltese counterparts.

Following
a series of brief presentations and speeches, one-to-one meetings will be held
with interested Maltese importers, distributors, manufacturers and exporters of
the following industries: Embroidery and Serigraphy, Landscaping Services
production od ornamental plants and fruit trees, Agricultural products and
fertilizers, mineral water, canned seafood, olive oil, building materials,
recycling materials, consultancy and assistance for industrial companies,
travel agency.

Companies
and individuals interested in holding meetings with any of the Tunisian
businessmen are kindly requested to contact Ms Lara Fiott on
by not later than Tuesday 25th June 2013.

During a public
consultation with Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business Chris
Cardona and Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth Edward
Zammit Lewis, Philip Fenech asked whether aid to finance for small businesses
such as JEREMIE and other schemes would be re-introduced or extended. Hon.
Chris Cardona answered yes there would also be other financial schemes that
will help to start ups or further expansion.

During
another public consultation meeting with Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna
and Minister for Energy and the Conservation of Water Konrad Mizzi, Philip
Fenech Deputy President of GRTU discussed with Konrad Mizzi the 25% reduction
in tariffs, emphasising that in many businesses the water and electricity
tariffs are intensive to an extent that it is even more than what
establishments pay in rent for their business. Mr. Fenech was particularly
referring to the leisure industry, industrial factories and so on, which
experience the highest tariffs.

With
Minister Edward Scicluna, Mr Fenech discussed issues concerning Cyprus and
emphasis was made that Malta will not get a bad name with the transfer of
Russian money from Cyprus to Malta.

In a
separate public consultation with Minister for Home Affairs and National
Security Manuel Mallia and Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici, Mr Fenech spoke
about the discussion taken regarding the Paceville debate to the Social
Committee. A booklet was published with a summary of people who spoke and it
also included the conclusion that Paceville need Town Centre Management
Committee that was already a pilot project. In this committee issues could be
resolved in real time to elevate any hardship to the residents in the
area. 

With
Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici, Mr Fenech spoke about the case of
Government expropriation and asked Government to treat the issue with urgency.
Since many of these cases pending 20years and reminded the Minister that
‘Justice delayed is Justice denied!'

During this morning's session of
Appuntament ma l-Ewropa organized by the European Parliament Office in Malta a
Public Lecture was delivered by Dr Joanna Drake, Director for SMEs and
Entrepreneurship and Deputy SME Envoy at the European Comission, DG Enterprise
& Industry.

Dr Drake stated that SMEs
have always been at the centre of the political agenda and that is exactly what
their office always strives to do. She mentioned an important report announced
by the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and made public
today, which next week will be handed to all Member States and on which the
Commission will demand a clear commitment by all Member States to inject part
of these funds in the real economy. The report clearly outlines how funds need
to be directed in a way as to increase loans, guarantees and securitization for
SMEs which are those deemed to be at higher risk. It also provides examples of
best practices by Member States of funds are being utilized in such a a manner.

Dr Drake continued stating that we
have today 21 Million SMEs which is less than the 23 Million we were used to. 2
Million have died due to the recession and were not regenerated. Recovery has
started but it is a jobless recovery which is worrying and therefore the
Commission is cautiously optimistic. She said that unfortunately we have taken
things for granted for too long and SMEs have been through so much that the
level of wanting to be entrepreneurs has gone drastically worldwide but
especially in the EU which went down to 30% compared to 50% in the US and 70%
in China. GRTU's Director General Vincent Farrugia said that this comes to no
surprise when we see what enterprises went through these last years everyone
fears to go into entrepreneurship.

The issue of second chance and
bankruptcies is something Dr Drake says that it stands out and that the
Commission intends to take serious action on. She stated the Commission
issues a yearly report on how Member States are faring on the implementation of
the Small Business Act – the Country Specific Fact Sheets. GRTU remarked how
useful such fact sheets are.

GRTU's Director General called on
the commission to give statistics on how much bureaucracy has really been
reduced and how much funds are really going to SMEs. Dr Drake admitted that the
Commission and Parliament ask for such a statistic in relation to funds and it
is very difficult to get a clear picture of how much SMES have benefited, how
much business was created and how much employment was generated.

Mr Farrugia demanded funds that are
more effective and accessible and a more direct approach. He said the
Commission needs to breath down the neck of Member States to ensure funds are
made accessible and the Commission must measure with a formula how affective we
have been. 

European
citizens are entitled to live in freedom, without fear of persecution or
violence, anywhere in the European Union. Yet international crime and terrorism
are among the main concerns of Europeans today. Clearly,
freedom of movement must mean giving everyone, everywhere in the EU, the same
protection and the same access to justice.

So, through successive amendments to
the Treaties, the European Union is gradually being made into a single ‘area of
freedom, security and justice'.

Fighting international crime

A
coordinated effort is needed to combat criminal gangs who run
people-trafficking networks and who exploit vulnerable human beings,
particularly women and children.

Organised
crime is becoming ever more sophisticated and regularly uses European or
international networks for its activities. Terrorism has clearly shown that it
can strike, with great brutality, anywhere in the world.

This
is why the Schengen information system (SIS) was set up. This is a complex
database which enables police forces and judicial authorities to exchange
information on people for whom an arrest warrant or extradition request has
been issued, and on stolen property such as vehicles or works of art.

One
of the best ways of catching criminals is to track their ill-gotten gains. For this
reason, and to cut off the funding of criminal and terrorist organisations, the
EU has brought in legislation to prevent money-laundering.

The
greatest advance made in recent years in the field of cooperation between law
enforcement authorities was the creation of Europol. It tackles a wide range of
international crime: drug trafficking, trade in stolen vehicles, people
trafficking and illegal immigration networks, the sexual exploitation of women
and children, child pornography, forgery, the trafficking of radioactive and
nuclear material, terrorism, money-laundering and counterfeiting the euro.

Towards a ‘European judicial
area'

International
crime and terrorism have no respect for national boundaries. This is why the EU
needs a common framework to guarantee its citizens a high level of protection
and to improve international cooperation in this area. The EU also needs a
common criminal justice policy, to ensure that cooperation between the courts
in different countries is not hampered by their differing definitions of
certain criminal acts.

The
main example of practical cooperation in this field is Eurojust, a central
coordinating structure that enables the national investigating and prosecuting
authorities to work together on criminal investigations involving several EU
countries. Another tool for practical cross-border cooperation is the European
arrest warrant, operational since January 2004. It is intended to replace
lengthy extradition procedures.

In
the area of civil law, the EU has adopted legislation to help apply court
rulings in cross-border cases involving divorce, separation, child custody and
maintenance claims. The aim is to ensure that judgments in one country are
applicable in another. The EU has established common procedures to simplify and
speed up the settlement of cross-border cases in small and uncontested civil
claims like debt recovery and bankruptcy.

The Malta Competition and
Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) would like to invite you to the seminar,
entitled ‘TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY?! – Do you know your Consumer Rights?'.
This is the third seminar in a series of five being organised by MCCAA. This seminar
will focus on the following topics:

Air Passenger Rights

Travel
Packages

Home
Loans

Consumer
Credit

Consumer
Guarantees

Consumer
Claims Tribunal

If any of your colleagues, friends, peers or staff,
would also like to attend please pass on this invitation or simply register on
their behalf. Attendance is free but to confirm your attendance you need to
register at: http://www.mccaa.org.mt/en/gozo-seminar and fill in the Online Registration Form on the MCCAA
website.

This
half day seminar will be taking place on

Friday 19th July,
2013

between 09.00 and
13.00,

at the Grand Hotel in
Mgarr, Gozo.

(All presentations
will be done in Maltese)

Based on first preliminary
estimates for 2012, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita expressed in
Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) varied from 47% to 271% of the EU27 average across
the Member States.

The highest level of GDP
per capita in the EU27 was recorded in Luxembourg with a level of more than two
and a half times the EU27 average. Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden
were around 30% above the average. Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Finland were
between 15% and 25% above the average, while the United Kingdom and France were
around 10% above.
In Italy and Spain, GDP
per capita was just below the EU27 average. Cyprus was around 10% below the
average, while Malta (at 86%), Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece
and Portugal were between nearly 15% and 25% lower. Lithuania, Estonia, Poland,
Hungary and Latvia were between 30% and 40% lower than the average, while
Romania and Bulgaria were more than 50% below the average.

These figures for GDP per
capita, expressed in PPS, are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of
the European Union. They cover the 27 EU Member States, three EFTA countries,
one acceding state, four candidate countries and two potential candidate
countries.

Actual Individual Consumption per capita in the Member States
ranged from 48% to 141% of the EU27 average

While GDP per capita is
often used as an indicator of countries' level of welfare, it is not the only
such indicator. An alternative welfare indicator, better adapted to reflect the
situation of households, is Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita.
Generally, levels of AIC per capita are more homogeneous than those of GDP but
still there are substantial differences between the Member States. In 2012, AIC
per capita expressed in PPS ranged between 48% of the EU average in Romania to
141% in Luxembourg.

The first stage in the search for Europe's best solution
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has come to a close. The World You Like
Challenge invited the most creative minds from across the EU to put their
low-carbon innovations to the test. The most practical, cost-efficient and
effective climate solutions, which can also be applied in other European
countries, will be rewarded. Now it is time to vote for the winner.

From 19 June onwards, the public will be able to
decide which ten European projects should go on to the next stage through an
online vote. These projects will then be put to a jury led by Commissioner
Hedegaard, which will select three finalists to be honoured at the Sustainia
Award Ceremony in Copenhagen this autumn.

Vote for your favourite project in the
EU-wide low-carbon contest, through the following links:

http://world-you-like.europa.eu/en/success-stories/

http://bit.ly/RsiKVx @EUClimateAction
#worldulike

The European Commission is
expected to publish proposals concerning the fees charged on payments using
electronic cards. The card scheme MasterCard has been pursuing an aggressive
media campaign against such regulation. EuroCommerce calls on the European Commission
not to be pressurized: all European businesses and consumers need and deserve
strong regulation against these fees.

Christian Verschueren, Director-General of
EuroCommerce said, "These fees, which only benefit the banks, are wholly hidden
from consumers but increase the price of all goods and services whether or not
a card is used to pay. Many cards also carry ‘free gifts' such as air-miles or
money-off coupons. But these gifts are not free. All consumers pay for them
through the hidden interchange fees."

"Much
consumer complaint has come from the practice of surcharging," commented
Christian Verschueren. "But retailers would rather not surcharge: they are
forced into it because of the huge costs associated with payments by credit
card. The removal of this cost burden would allow merchants to offer lower
prices and better services to all consumers."

The fees, known as multi-lateral
interchange fees (MIFs), are interbank fees charged on most card transactions.
They do not correspond to cost and, for some debit and most credit cards, they
are charged as a percentage of the price – up to 2% in some countries. They are
borne directly by merchants but ultimately increase costs for all consumers.

MasterCard's MIF system
has been condemned, by the European Commission, as a price-fixing cartel in
breach of European competition law. The European Court upheld the decision
against MasterCard, finding that MIFs are not necessary for the card schemes to
function and that they distort competition across the whole payment market.
Some progress has been made on cross-border fees through the competition cases.
But regulation is needed urgently to address domestic MIFs which remain
unjustifiably high.

EuroCommerce urges the European
public not to be misled by media articles which claim consumers would suffer if
the MIF system were subject to regulation: the opposite is true. All consumers
would benefit. It is in the nature of the retail business to be highly
competitive: this fact alone would dictate that savings made by the sector on
MIFs would be passed on to consumers.

The current MIF system,
and associated card scheme rules, also act as barriers to new payment operators
entering the market. If these barriers were removed, new providers could offer
effective competition with new payment methods. This, in turn, would also
reduce costs to the benefit of retailers and consumer alike. The ultimate
benefits would be an expansion of cross-border and e-commerce trade which would
bring new goods and services to consumers at more competitive prices.

GRTU's
EU Desk has this week attended an important consultation organized by MEUSAC on
the trademark system. – A
trade mark serves to distinguish the goods and services of a company. It is the
mark through which a business can attract and retain customer loyalty, and
create value and growth.

The
proposed package of reforms aim to improve conditions for businesses to
innovate and to benefit from more effective trade mark protection against
counterfeits, including fake goods in transit through the EU's territory. It
also aims to foster innovation and economic growth by making trade mark
registration systems all over the EU more accessible and efficient for
businesses in terms of lower costs and complexity, increased speed, greater
predictability and legal security.

So what is being proposed?

Graphical
representation: The need for a graphical representation removed to be replaced with
other more advanced methods which according to the European Commission will
help companies more in complying with such a requirement. It is not as yet
clear how this requirement will be replaced.

Rights
conferred by a trademark: e.g. as regards goods brought into the customs
territory: improving the means to fight
counterfeiting by allowing/clarifying possibility of seizure of counterfeit goods in transit or shipped to end consumers

Protection of geographical
indications and geographical
terms. This is applicable to goods that specifically come from a particular
region.

Protection of trade in comparative advertising. This is very much linked to competition law however comparative
advertising using another trademark where there is an issue of misleading in
the advertisement will be controlled to ensure protection.

Trade marks included as objects of property (transfer,
licensing, levy of execution and insolvency)

Designation
and classification of goods and
services, including use and interpretation of class headings. As it is
currently the case with the national authority, when there is an application
for a trade mark one has to list what goods and services will be associated
with it and the relevant classification.

Ex officio
examination will become only
limited to absolute grounds for refusal. Currently the examinations deal with
also partial grounds for refusal however these are seen by the European
Commission as adding bureaucracy and going beyond the result they seek to
achieve and therefore proposes to limit examinations strictly to absolute
grounds.

It will become mandatory to have both administrative opposition
and cancellation procedures.

Harmonisation of rules on duration of protection
and renewal.

Whereas before a fee could be paid for multiple classes chosen the Commission is proposing
that the fee is applicable for each class chosen so as to discourage
unnecessarily choosing classes.

Filling of
application via national
offices abolished

Including a filing date obligation to
pay the fee linked with the filing of the application (one month period
abolished)

Searched – current search regimes abolished to be
replaced by modern IT tools

The consultation runs till 04.07.13. For further details of to send
comments by email: .