As a member of
the MEUSAC Core Group GRTU President Paul Abela has called on the President,
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, at The Palace in Valletta and had an exchange of
views on MEUSAC's role as well as on various issues currently on the EU agenda.
The President
expressed her wish for regular informal meetings with the Core Group in order
to keep in touch with the views of the stakeholders represented on the Core
Group on current EU legislative and policy initiatives. GRTU has been a full
Member of MEUSAC since the very beginning to represent its members which are
SMEs.
One-stop-shop
for agricultural innovation in Europe: The new website of the European
Innovation partnership on Agriculture (EIP AGRI) is online. The website is a
one-stop-shop for sharing information on projects, research needs, funding
opportunities etc. and to finding partners to develop and implement innovative
ideas for agriculture. Link:
http://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/en
RARHA, Joint
Action on Reducing Alcohol Related Harm, is a Member States initiative launched
this year with support from the European Community and the Committee on
National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA). Funded under the second EU Health
Programme, this 3 years action aims at supporting Member States to take forward
work on common priorities in line with the EU Alcohol Strategy, and strengthen
Member States' capacity to address and reduce the harm associated with alcohol.
Its
vertical Work Packages address the needs for comparable data, clear guidelines
and the development of a good practice tool-kit:
1. Monitoring: Member States will be mobilised to take-up of common survey methodology
to obtain comparable data for monitoring progress in reducing alcohol related
harm at national and EU level and for benchmarking national developments
against wider trends.
2. Guidelines: A common ground
in communication on alcohol related harm will be widened, providing a guidance
document for policy makers on the scientific basis and policy implications of
low risk drinking guidelines.
3. Tool-Kit: A Tool-Kit of
good practice approaches in information dissemination will be developed, taking
into account effectiveness, transferability, relevance, costs and usefulness.
‘EXPLORE
European Structural and Investment Funds' will be the fifth of a series of six
information sessions, each targeting a
different thematic area. This session will be promoting EU funding programmes
related to European Structural and Investment Funds.
All public sector officials,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and local councils interested
in any project or initiative related
to the sector, are invited to this session.
The session will be addressed by Dr Ian Borg, Parliamentary Secretary for
the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, and will include a number of presentations
by various Managing Authorities and National Contact Points responsible for
different funds under the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.
EXPLORE | European
Structural and Investment Funds
Participants will also have the
opportunity to involve themselves in networking with representatives of
Managing Authorities and National Contact Points who will be present to answer
queries on a one-to-one basis.
Should you be interested in taking
part, and reply on by not later than Monday, September 29, 2014.
‘EXPLORE Environment' will be the last of a series
of six information sessions, each targeting a
different thematic area. This session will be promoting EU funding programmes
related to the environment.
All public sector officials,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and local councils interested
in any project or initiative related
to the sector, are invited to this session.
The session will include a number of
presentations by various Managing Authorities and National Contact Points
responsible for different funds under the Multiannual Financial Framework
2014-2020.
Participants will also have the
opportunity to involve themselves in networking with representatives of
Managing Authorities and National Contact Points who will be present to answer
queries on a one-to-one basis.
Should you be
interested in taking part, kindly register on by not later than Thursday, October 2, 2014.
In a
joint statement ahead of the hearings of the commissioners-designated,
BUSINESSEUROPE, EUROCHAMBRES, EuroCommerce and UEAPME demand that the European
Union prioritizes competitiveness in any future policy initiative.
In their
paper "Competitiveness First", the four business organisations argue that
Europe's most urgent issues, such as creating jobs for the 25 million
unemployed, enabling young people to enter the labour market and making social
systems and public households sustainable can only be solved by improving
economic performance. To do so, Europe has to become more attractive for
private investment in the real economy and this requires an increase in
competitiveness. Therefore, competitiveness must come first, which requires a
coherent approach to EU policy making for the new term that covers all aspects
of competitiveness, as set out in the joint statement.
The
Occupational Health and Safety Authority has this week has issued a press
release in response to the photos being posted by the media showing unsafe work
practices.
Media and members of the general public are being urged to
immediately inform OHSA of any unsafe work practices in order to take the
necessary measures so as to safeguard the health and safety of persons involved
in the work activity, instead of leaving the same workers working in an unsafe
manner until OHSA takes the necessary action.
Whilst OHSA understands the interests of media and civic minded
persons in wanting to raise issues of unsafe work practices, such approach will
not reach the effectiveness desired if OHSA is not immediately informed. Most
of the time, photos are published hours and even days after the occurrence of
the unsafe work practice thus leaving the same person being exposed to serious
and imminent danger. OHSA adopts a confidentiality complaint reporting
procedure in order to secure the confidentiality of the complainant.
Occupational health and safety is a complex subject which
requires the cooperation of stakeholders and duty holders and it can only be
improved through a self-regulating process where all duty holders recognize
that it is in their best interest to adhere to their duties imposed by law.
In terms of the OHSA Act XXVII of 2000 and other subsidiary
regulations, employers have various legal obligations that must be fulfilled in
order to manage health and safety at the place of work. Employers have the general
duty of ensuring the health and safety at all times of all persons who may be
affected by the work being carried out for such employers. This duty is
considered to be wide in its scope and encompasses a series of other
obligations intended to fulfil such general duty.
Employers must have in place appropriate arrangements for the
effective planning, organization, control, monitoring and review of the
preventive and protective measures. The approach to be taken by employers must
be based on a well-defined management system based on prevention in particular
through the provision of risk assessments and implementation of control
measures based on the general principles of prevention laid down in the OHSA
Act. The general principles of prevention are set out in descending order of
preference with the best approach being the adequate control of risk. These
principles are intended to secure the best approach to address hazards and
risks which may be present in the place of work.
On the other hand, workers have also a number of duties that must
be fulfilled in order to ensure a safer and healthier workplace. Workers have
the duty to cooperate with their employer in matters pertaining to health and
safety and to safeguard their own health and safety and that of other who may
be affected by their actions.
With regards to construction work activities, OHSA urges all duty
holders to adopt a risk prevention approach from the beginning. This can be
only achieved if all duty holders in particular the client, contractors,
project supervisors and workers themselves adopt a collective approach towards
the implementation of control measures intended to prevent accidents at the
place of work.
Last week GRTU Deputy President
Philip Fenech and President of the tourism and hospitality section met with the
Acting Commissioner of Police Ray Zammit to discuss long-term improvements of
security management in the St. Julians and Paceville area.
During the meeting
it was outlined that one will observe a significant increase in security in the
area, it is not however just a matter of deploying more police but it is rather
crucial to raise awareness amongst people that socialise in the area. These
individuals should realise that they should not put themselves in situations
that would escalate to crime such as leaving belongings unattended. Increasing
the resource of police officers would help the situation however it is not a
solution.
This year's
World Tourism Day seeks to celebrate the theme of Tourism and Community
Development. This theme focuses on the ability of tourism to empower people and
provide them with skills to achieve change in their local communities.
In its 2015 Budget proposals
GRTU is calling for the generation of increased economic activity in our
localities. With our country's small size it makes all the more sense to
maximise our space potential and build on the concept of community tourism.
Alternative forms of accommodation should be encouraged and incentivised. The
popularity of staying in boutique hotels, small guest houses, hostels and even
host families has soared drastically in recent years and Malta should be able
to cater for such a demand. It is still tourism of high quality and value added
but whose priority is the authenticity of the experience. There is in fact
indeed a demand by tourists to experience countries away from the traditionally
tourist concentrated areas.
The value added in the
utilization of available resources that could easily materialise with the right
incentives. The ripple effect this would have on our economy as a whole could
be remarkable. Cafés, Restaurants and retailers will benefit if tourists
accommodation spreads from the traditional tourists areas to the localities.
The package of incentives should focus on facilitating access to finance, which
includes grants, tax credits and advantageous loans. Licensing and standards
should also reflect this shift.
This year's World Tourism Day
theme will highlight the potential of tourism to promote opportunities for communities
around the world, as well as the role that community engagement has in
advancing sustainable tourism development.
World Tourism Day is
celebrated every year on the 27 of September. It is a global celebration that
highlights tourism's social, cultural, political and economic value.
GRTU President Paul Abela and Deputy
President Philip Fenech have this week participated in a public consultation
session where the Minister of Finance Edward Scicluna discussed Malta's
financial situation.
In reply to GRTU Hon Scicluna
said that the loan worth €52 million which was provided by the European
Commission, to prevent the collapse of Air Malta, was a one time occurrence
which will not be given to the airline a second time, so it is crucial to get
it right.
It has been forecasted that in
March 2014, Air Malta's financials may experience €30 million in losses, the
year in which the airline should be heading for a breakeven situation.
This concern was raised by
Philip Fenech during one of a series of public consultation sessions organised
by the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC). Mr Fenech expressed his
concern over Air Malta's future and the fact that flights to Libya had been
stopped as a result of the war, which comes at a time when the national carrier
is attempting to break even"It is the interest of every citizen, of the
industry and mine that Air Malta reaches its targets…but your guess is as good
as mine," Scicluna replied.
Following these remarks, Prof.
Scicluna reiterated that the Budget 2015 targeted those who were on social
benefits, by encouraging them to join the workforce. In this regard GRTU
President Paul Abela said that GRTU will be sending its budget proposal list as
usual and it will focus on increasing access to finance and the recommendation
to include favourable interest rates for businesses. GRTU is concerned that the
level of bank lending to business has decreased which would continue to hinder
Malta's economy and therefore it requests that the Government should intervene
to improve this situation.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
As a member of
