Category: Archive – 2009

Throughout the whole meeting of the informal Council in Brno, the Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries engaged in discussions of the future shape of the simplified system of direct payments and a more even distribution that would result in a fairer competitive environment on the single market.

This reflects the long-term efforts of the Czech Republic as a new Member State and the Czech agriculture diplomats to create a more efficient CAP. The topic is highly relevant also in the context of the current economic crisis as it will eventually enable farmers to face new challenges, such as the increasing volatility of markets and climate change.

Furthermore, the CAP should ensure a prospective sustainable development of rural areas in the EU. In the future direct payments should be considered in the context of market instruments and funds allocated to rural development and they should complement these instruments appropriately.

The full document will be discussed in the next Agriculture and Fisheries Sectoral Meeting and any contributions you would like to make will be pointed out. These should be sent to Abigail Mamo on .

All actors in the process should in the future pay particular attention to this aspect.

Simplifying the CAP is essential to making the agricultural economy more competitive, preserving and creating jobs and contributing to a sound development of our rural areas. This is why a simplified CAP is a success for all.

This communication will highlight the activities that have been carried out since 2005, and give indications of the resulting reduction in administrative burden for farmers and administrations. Special attention will be paid to the rolling Simplification Action Plan, the single CMO, the 2007 study on administrative burden for farms and the results of the Health Check process. To conclude, the communication will explore paths to further simplification actions in the future.

To keep the momentum going and to create an environment which establishes appropriate conditions for further simplification of the CAP, the following elements and projects are scheduled for the coming years: Common Strategy Date, cross compliance, Communications, "Harvest Experience", Quality Policy, Continuation of the Action Plan, regular revision, language use and accessibility of legal texts, continuation of sharing best practices.

The full document will be discussed in the next Agriculture and Fisheries Sectoral Meeting and any contributions you would like to make will be pointed out. These should be sent to Abigail Mamo on .

According to GRTU, the European Commission focused on the right priorities and struck the right balance between actions on the supply side and on the demand side of the economy. GRTU was particularly pleased with the Commission's proposal to boost vocational training, which now includes an ambitious quantitative target of 5 million apprenticeships before 2010, and with the suggested joint EIB-EC micro-credit scheme for loans to micro enterprises.

Employment and Social Affairs Director at UEAPME Liliane Volozinskis offered the following comments: "The European Commission has clearly taken our messages on board, emphasising the importance of flexicurity to modernise labour markets and focusing on the right priorities to safeguard employment during the present downturn. The European Council should endorse this ambitious plan."

The demand side of labour markets rightly gets more attention than usual and companies' difficulties are taken into account. The Commission's calls to reduce non-wage labour costs, decrease the burden of social security and promote entrepreneurship and self-employment are a welcome change of language from previous communications, which often focused exclusively on the supply of labour.

On the supply side, improving skills to better meet labour market needs is a clear priority for SMEs, which find it hard to recruit qualified workers, all the more so in the present downturn. We are certainly pleased with the EC proposal since vocational training is one of the best ways to get a job. However, we wonder how this target can be reached without support measures for crafts and SMEs, which are the main providers of apprenticeships and may be less than likely to host apprentices at this time of reduced economic activity.

12 years after its initial complaint against Visa and MasterCard, EuroCommerce is today lodging a new complaint against Visa Europe.

The European retail association argues that the fees, set by Visa and its member banks and imposed on retailers, constitute an infringement of European competition law. It was the imposition of exactly such fees which led the European Commission to rule against MasterCard in December 2007. EuroCommerce calls for the same robust decision against Visa.

At the core of the complaint is the infamous Multilateral Interchange Fee (MIF): when a customer pays with a Visa debit or credit card, the merchant has to pay to his bank a non-negotiable and completely opaque amount. The fact that retailers pay for benefits which go to others distorts competition between banks: the more banks compete, the higher the prices.

"The Visa interchange fee procedure is completely unfair", says Xavier Durieu, Secretary General of EuroCommerce. "Retailers are forced to pay for a range of services from which they do not benefit. Bank rates are the only services which retailers, even the largest ones, are not able to negotiate".

Furthermore, EuroCommerce does not regard new rates published by Visa on 11 March 2009 as a fair amount either, while MasterCard rates on cross-border transactions are zero. Studies published by the bank themselves reveal that the cost of running a pan-European debit card, profit included, is not higher than 1 eurocent per transaction.

"We are confident that the European Commission will deal with this new case in the same way they have decided on MasterCard in 2007. In the end, all consumers will benefit from a better functioning market."

The EU is considering expanding the use of food labels to show where the product was farmed. The step follows a Europe-wide consultation on the issue of food quality. Farmers, producers and consumers voiced strong support for greater use of ‘place-of-farming' labels.

Such labels indicate the country of harvest, not where the product was processed. They are already mandatory for some foods sold in the EU, including unprocessed beef, poultry, fruit, vegetables, eggs, honey, wine and olive oil.

The commission wants to abolish the EU label for identifying and protecting the names of traditional products. EU labels referring to a product's geographical origin such as the Camembert cheese from the Normandy region of France, and the prosciutto from Parma, would also be revised.

Meanwhile, an EU logo for organic foods is being developed. Starting in 2010, it will be mandatory for all products sold as organic in the EU.

Source: MEUSAC Competitiveness and Consumer Affairs Sectoral Committee

The European Commission (DG MARKT) started last week a  consultation on a review of the Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes and plans to present a proposal at the end of this year.

You may be aware that as a measure against the financial crisis the EU has increase the minimum coverage to € 50,000 respectively to € 100,000 by the end of 2010. Originally only private households was included in these minimum requirements for Deposit Guarantee Schemes and UEAPME lobbied for a directive, which also covered SME accounts, which was not fully successful. We did not get SME accounts into the minimum requirement for SMEs, but the restriction to households was also deleted. This means, currently the Member States have to decide, if they want to have SMEs covered by their guarantee schemes or not.

With this consultation DG MARKT wants to get information about the best regime after this crisis, especially as regards:

strengthen depositor confidence,

enhance financial stability,

protect a part of depositors' wealth,

enhance the Internal Market.

The consultation is open until 27 July 2009. Please visit:

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2009/deposit_guarantee_schemes_en.htm

If you are answering the consultation directly, please send us a copy of your reply. In order to integrate your reply / comments in the official position of GRTU, please send your contribution not later than 21 July 2009.

Each post
sought corresponds to a person seeking employment. If you have vacancies please
contact Abigail Mamo @ GRTU on 

 

Post sought: Preferably teaching English or Spanish however considers other work Work Experience: Assistant chef and kitchen assistant Primary education teaching professional Administrative Secretary Day labourer or farming tomato Education: Cambridge English certificate Standard General English Course English Studies degree Administrative assistant	Sex: Male Age: 27 Nationality: Spanish Language knowledge: Fluent: Spanish Fluent: English
Post sought: Administrative work, journalism, researcher Work Experience: Administrative assistant and researcher Journalist Education: Order of journalists English diploma Master in journalism and radio Degree in Sciences of Communication	Sex: Female Age: 27 Nationality: Italian Language knowledge: Fluent: Italian Good: English Sufficient: French

The Energy Labelling Directive (Directive 92/75/EEC) imposes an obligation on suppliers of household appliances to provide information on the energy consumption of each product supplied. All household appliances, even if sold for non-household use, offered for sale, hire or hire-purchase, must be accompanied by a fiche and a label providing information relating to their consumption of energy (electrical or other) or of other essential resources.  In November 2008 the Commission launched a proposal for a recast of this Directive. This proposal seeks to extend the scope of the applicability of the current Directive to all energy-related products (including the household, commercial and industrial sectors) as well as to some non-energy using products such as windows which have a significant energy-saving potential.

 

In this context, MEUSAC shall be organising a briefing session for stakeholders on the issues involved, the current discussions taking place and developments to be expected in the near future. The session should be of particular interest to all operators involved in the manufacture, retail and purchase of energy-related products and is being held on the 18^th June at 9am. Further details and a registration form can be obtained from Abigail Mamo 21232881/3 or .

Participation is free of charge. Registration is highly recommended in view of seating restrictions and should reach MEUSAC offices by not later than noon of Wednesday 17th June 2009. 

Within the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), the European Commission has recently launched a call for proposals for the creation of national platforms for the promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The deadline for submission of applications is 17 July 2009.

In this light, the CIP Malta National Contact Point (CIP Malta NCP) within Malta Investment Management Ltd. (MIMCOL) is organising in collaboration with Bank of Valletta (BOV) an information session and roundtable discussion for stakeholders. The aim is not only to create awareness and provide details about this call, but also to facilitate networking and establishment of direct communication channels between the potential partners in such a CSR platform.

Event date:  15^th June 2009

Venue:  Conference Room – BOV Centre, Cannon Road, Sta. Venera   

The event is free of charge, however due to seating restrictions you are kindly requested to confirm your participation by providing your name, organisation and contact details to Mr. Pedro Fernandez Alvarez at by latest 11 June 2009.