Category: Archive – 2014

What's Happening? At the
moment the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA) are drafting
an action plan targeting binge drinking, enforcement of restrictions on
availability for youth, limiting exposure of youth to alcohol marketing and
advertising, ensuring a healthy and safe environment for children and young
people and monitoring and increased research.

Background

Alcohol
is one of the world's top three priority public health areas. Even though only
half the global population drinks alcohol, it is the world's third leading
cause of ill health and premature death, after low birth weight and unsafe sex
(for which alcohol is a risk factor), and greater than tobacco. In Europe,
alcohol is also the third leading risk factor for disease and mortality after
tobacco and high blood pressure.

The
European Union (EU) is the region with the highest alcohol consumption in the
world: in 2009, average adult (aged 15+ years) alcohol consumption in the EU
was 12.5 litres of pure alcohol – 27g of pure alcohol or nearly three drinks a
day, more than double the world average. Although there are many individual
country differences, alcohol consumption in the EU as a whole has continued at
a stable level over the past decade. Alcohol is a cause of no communicable
diseases, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases and liver diseases;
communicable diseases, increasing the risks of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and
community-acquired pneumonia; and all types of intentional and unintentional
injury, including homicides and suicides. Alcohol harms people other than the
drinker, whether through violence on the street, domestic violence in the
family, or simply using government resources, notably through the costs of providing
health care, unemployment and incapacity benefits, and dealing with crime and
disorder.

What is being proposed?

Minimum Unit
Pricing – a standard rate for a MUP per gram of alcohol.

Evening hours watershed for TV and
Radio.

Cinema – ban unless film is for over
18s

Outdoor media – restrictions

Print media – restrictions

Regulation of advertising content

Regulation of sport sponsorship

Health advice and warnings (including
pregnancy) on all alcohol drink containers and on promotional materials

Display of grams of pure alcohol

Display calorie count

Malta compared to the rest of the EU

The overall
volume of consumption has traditionally been high in the EU, except for Cyprus
and Malta showing also a relatively lowest burden of alcohol-attributable
mortality.

Countries that
joined the EU in 2004, and later countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, had to
increase their alcohol excise duty rates considerably before or when they
joined the EU.

In almost all
new EU member states since 2003, the nominal and real values of alcohol excise
duty rates increased between 2004 and 2010. The exceptions are Cyprus, with a
constant nominal rate, and Malta, with a constant excise duty rate for beer and
a 50% decrease for distilled spirits. Despite increases in alcohol excise duty
rates in the new EU member states, the lowest excise duty rates were still
found among them in 2011, Bulgaria and Romania being the clearest examples. Low
excise duty rates for beer can also be found among the older member states.

At the end of
2010, all but three countries had established a maximum legal BAC level of 0.5
g/litre or below for general population drivers, with four countries adopting a
zero tolerance level . Towards the end of 2011, Ireland reduced its maximum
permitted BAC level from 0.8 g/litre to 0.5 g/litre for general population
drivers. This left only Malta and the United Kingdom with a level of 0.8
g/litre.

Conclusion

Alcohol is not
just a health issue; it is also a vital issue for the economy and for
productivity. At times of economic downturns, the two conditions for which
death rates jump up are suicides and 
alcohol use disorders. A more than 3% increase in unemployment in the EU
is associated with a staggering 28% increase in deaths from alcohol use
disorders. Many studies have estimated the economic burden that alcohol imposes
on society. The cost comes to as much as 2-3% of GDP, over €300 per citizen per
year; and between half and two thirds of these social costs are due to  lost productivity. If the costs to people
other than the drinker are included, this cost would probably double.  The EU faces an urgent need to reduce the
burden of alcohol, not only to improve the health and well-being of its
citizens but also to strengthen the economic sustainability and productivity of
the Union as a whole.

The date of the
next meeting of CNAPA will be 17-18 June.

Article by Gayle Lynn Callus –
University student reading a Bachelors Degree in European Studies

GRTU Deputy
President Philip Fenech attended last week a high level meeting that discussed
how we can facilitate tourism to the Mediterranean, specifically through the EU
visa policy. It is estimated that 21% of potential tourists refrain from going
to the EU because of visa requirements. 

For Mediterranean Member States tourism is very important. The Mediterranean
is the world's most visited region with one third of international arrivals
opting for destinations within this region. 22% of global international
arrivals choose one of the nine EU Mediterranean Member States who have met
here today.

Yet
there is still the objective for increased flows through facilitating visa
procedures whilst ensuring security. Aware of the growing importance of tourism
for Europe, including tourism from third countries, the European Commission
examined the policy on visas and external border crossings, carried out intense
consultation and very recently issued a proposal for a revised visa code and a
touring visa with a view to facilitating tourism flows. This dossier is
certainly an important one for Malta, and for the other Mediterranean EU Member
States, for security reasons but also in view of the importance to tourism for
our economy and its potential to contribute to facilitating tourism flows to
our Mediterranean countries.

In terms
of tourism performance, we have had a series of successful years due to the
policy and strategy Malta is adopting, ensuring accessibility and seat
capacity, tapping all distribution channels, working with tour operators,
strengthening our tourism product and supporting and working with tourism
operators and other stakeholders. In 2013, 1.58 million international tourists
visited Malta. About 4% of these were generated from source markets requiring a
visa, including China, Ukraine and Russia – markets which certainly offer
greater potential for us in Malta but certainly also for all other
Mediterranean EU Member States for who tourism acts as an economic pillar. As a
government we want to strengthen our promotional efforts in these source
markets, efforts which need to be complemented by a supporting visa policy.

A new evaluation
that was published confirms that the smaller a firm, the larger the
likelihood that its credit application might be declined by a financial
institution. In particular, smaller companies are struggling to obtain feedback
from banks on their declined credit applications even if they have the right to
ask for it.

To help them eventually to obtain loans successfully, smaller firms
need to receive and act on feedback about areas in which their loan application
was lacking. Research results indicate that clear benefits would derive for
SMEs from obtaining such feedback: about half of SME respondents to the survey
found the feedback received by banks useful as regards obtaining future
funding. Therefore the evaluation recommends reviving the dialogue between
banks and SMEs, by increasing transparency and making efforts to improve
financial literacy in smaller companies. As small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) are an engine of growth in the EU economy, access to credit
is crucial both to their survival and that of our economy.

Recommendations of the evaluation

Research results indicate that SMEs would derive clear
benefits from obtaining feedback on their loan applications: about half of SME
respondents to a survey found the feedback received by banks useful as regards
obtaining future funding.

But it is exactly at the smaller end of the market where
there may be issues in obtaining feedback, where SMEs are often scored by the
banks using large data pools and the economics of the situation sometimes do
not support detailed and intense discussions between bank officials and SME
representatives.

To tackle the issues reported in the findings, the evaluation
recommends the revival of dialogue on transparency between banks and
representatives of SMEs, to raise awareness of enterprises as regards their
rights to obtain feedback and to develop an agreed standard of feedback to
SMEs.

DG Taxud has
launched a public consultation on "tax problems faced by EU citizens when
active across borders within the EU". Although the consultation is mainly
addressed to citizens, some aspects like barriers related to taxation of
e-commerce activities can also affect companies.

The
consultation is available on the http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/consultations/tax/2014-04_cross_borders_en.htm

If you wish to participate, it is recommend to use the MS Word version
of the questionnaire and send your answer both to the European Commission
() and to EuroCommerce
(). The deadline for your response is Friday, 3 July 2014.

The EU's
Foreign Affairs Council has now adopted the Commission's proposal for
autonomous trade measures providing unilateral tariff preferences for Ukraine.
The regulation is based on the early application of the trade in goods
provisions of the Association Agreement.

According
to the Commission, the temporary reduction of nearly 98% of European customs
duties will save Ukrainian exporters € 500 million per year. It provides for a
tariff cut for 82.3% of Ukrainian agricultural products and the opening-up of
quotas for sensitive products (cereals, pork, beef, poultry). It also brings in
preferences on 83.4% of Ukrainian exports of processed agricultural products.
Lastly, it provides for tariffs to be removed from 94.7% of Ukrainian
industrial products. In order to prevent circumvention, Ukraine must guarantee
the proper origin of products and exports will have to comply with EU
provisions on origin labelling. The EU reserves the right to re-impose tariffs
should imports of Ukrainian goods be subsequently perceived as excessive.

The
regulation will cease to apply on 1 November 2014.

Last week in
Tokyo, negotiators discussed a wide range of topics related to the EU-Japan
free trade agreement, including anti-dumping rules, tariffs and quotas, access
to public tenders, trade in services, health and hygiene rules, e-commerce,
rules of origin, facilitation of customs procedures and investment.

GRTU has last week presented the results of an extensive
survey it conducted amongst is members owner of enterprises. The survey was
carried out in February by GRTU staff and university students engaged
specifically for this project. A total of 500 interviews were conducted with
the various sectors GRTU represents.

In order to ensure quality interviewers gave
respondents adequate attention and clarifications where required. They also
gave respondents adequate time to reply to the questions and express their
feelings on the subject. It transpired that a good number of respondents were
passionate on the subject and many also were not sufficiently aware of the shop
opening hours rules that are in place today and how this applies to them.

GRTU President Paul Abela said that GRTU has only
taken the views of shop owners as we do not represent employees or consumers
and our members have answered according to what they think will help their
business. Mr Abela also emphasised however that GRTU's position is that employees
needed to be paid according to the law at all times.

Marcel Mizzi, GRTU Council Member, presented the
results of the survey and said that GRTU was surprised to see a strong support
wanting to decide for themselves if they wanted to open or not. Members of the
GRTU have been divided on this issue for a long time and as can be seen through
the survey diverging views are still present today, even amongst the GRTU
Council.   

The results of the survey were presented to Hon Chris
Cardona who was very interested in the results , praised he methodology by
which it was undertaken and said that the results will be very useful for the
work the Ministry is carrying out prior to the issuance of the white paper on
shop opening hours. The Minister said that as announced in the Budget 2014
speech the Ministry is consulting with all interested stakeholders and GRTU is
a main stakeholder in this regard.

The current law makes distinctions between different
types of shops which may not be sensitive enough to the type of enterprise and
its clientele. Hon. Cardona mentioned two of the recommendations made by
stakeholders:

1. Shops would be
allowed to choose their day of rest instead of imposing the same day on
everyone.

2. Shops would be
allowed to open until 10pm from Thursday to Saturday.

The Minister said that the change once enacted should
increase competition and should give owners more discretion as long as the
regulatory parameters such as those concerning wages are observed.

A number of amendments to the international conventions and
applicable testing standards have entered into force since the adoption of the
last amending act to Directive 96/98/EC. Consequently, those amendments were
incorporated into Directive 96/98/EC.

Therefore these amendments need to be transposed into
Maltese regulations and this will be done through the proposed Conformity
Assessment of Marine Equipment (Amendment) Regulations, 2014.

Marine Equipment includes items such as life-saving
products (lifebuoys, lifejackets, liferafts), fire protection equipment,
navigation equipment and radio communication equipment. The legal amendments
are highly technical in nature and relate to the testing procedures of the
products. Importers are advised to ensure marine equipment they import in Malta
comply with the latest regulations.

Kindly send your comments and feedback on the
amendments by Friday, 2^nd May 2014 to the
Regulatory Affairs Directorate, Technical Regulations Division, Malta
Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority by e-mailing

An important
meeting will be held with the Central Bank on Malta in preparation to the
introduction of the new €10 banknote. This banknote will be introduced shortly
and important preparations need to be made prior to ensure smooth introduction.
The introduction of a new €10 banknote will have a more significant impact than
the introduction of the €5 last year as the level of relevance to operators is
now much higher.

All
machines, including vending machines, 
and money checkers that accept the €10 will have to be upgraded with the
adequate software.

The
Central Bank of Malta will update you with developments and inform you of ways
in which it can support your preparations for the new €10 banknote.

The
meeting will be held as follows: Wednesday 16th April between 14.30 and 15.30
at the GRTU headquarters.

You are
kindly ask to confirm your attendance. Please feel free to contact me should
you require any clarification.