Consultation before not after decisions are taken

The Malta Council for Economic and Social Development is all set for its meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on Wednesday for an explanation of the country's convergence plan, recently approved by EU finance ministers.

Some of the partners were yesterday asked what they were expecting from the meeting and if they believed the MCESD was delivering as expected.

All agreed on the need for the council to be consulted before decisions were actually taken and not afterwards.

Vince Farrugia, director general of the Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise (GRTU), said that although the council was not consulted before the Prime Minister went for the Ecofin meeting, it was clear from the paper the government presented that what was being discussed in the MCESD had been taken on board.

Mr Farrugia said that one of the council's sub-committees dealt with competitiveness and this had been drawing up an economic and social strategy on measures that should be taken for the country to remain competitive without excessive social cost.

The committee had been working on this strategy throughout the year and its work should serve as the basis for the implementation of what had been agreed upon between the Prime Minister and Ecofin in Brussels.

Mr Farrugia said that while the paper presented in Brussels was fixing the targets the country should meet, Malta's role was now to meet the obligations being placed on it.

The targets agreed on had to be achieved through the policies and tools proposed by the competitiveness committee, he said.

The prime minister told a media briefing on Thursday that the plan was a reflection of the budget presented last November.

But Mr Farrugia said that while the 2004 budget was "flying a kite"; this paper was now a commitment with Ecofin, which could inflict sanctions on Malta if the country did not perform.

Luckily, the MCESD already had the required strategy document in place and the next step was the implementation of the policies following the required fine tuning.

Mr Farrago said that the targets in the agreement with Ecofin were achievable provided the members of the tripartite team put their heads together and agreed on what needed to be done.

Malta, he said, had to bring down its deficit irrelevant of its obligations with Ecofin, and it was about time that it was being forced to take action. Now, if it did not abide by the targets it had set itself, there would be a high price to pay.

Asked about the effectiveness of the MCESD, Mr Farrugia said that it had originally lacked qualified human resources on a full-time basis to do the technical work.

But it now had qualified economists and its members were people of experience and substance. So while the high-powered people were doing the talking, the technical team was working out what needed to be done.

Union Haddiema Maghqudin secretary general Gejtu Vella said the UHM did not agree with the Prime Minister's declaration that the convergence plan had been discussed with the social partners prior to the presentation of the budget.

Contrary to what the government was saying, the plan was not a reflection of the budget. It presented much wider measures and initiatives, which had not been discussed within the MCESD or with the unions.

Mr Vella insisted that for social dialogue to start taking shape, the politicians should attend MCESD meetings and not send permanent secretaries instead.

Social dialogue was tripartite but as the government was constantly absenting itself from this dialogue, the necessary changes were not taking place.

The MCESD, he said, was not being effective because of the absence of the politicians who had to take the decisions.

If the politicians wanted to stay out of this dialogue yet expected matters to go ahead, they had not yet understood anything and the country would continue going round in circles.

Mr Vella said that the measures agreed on with Ecofin should only be implemented following meaningful and effective dialogue.

It was not right that the UHM, for example, learned of certain issues, such as the presentation of the convergence plan to Ecofin from the media.

For the country to address its problems there had to be a sense of ownership. For this to be attained, the government had to consult the social partners, Mr Vella insisted.

General Workers Union general secretary Tony Zarb said that on Wednesday the GWU was expecting an explanation on what exactly had been agreed with the EU.

This then has to be seen in parallel with the work, which had been carried out by the MCESD sub-committees for several months, to ensure that this work would not have been in vain.

The prime minister had to explain to the council how the convergence plan was based on the budget for 2004, while highlighting what the difficult and important steps, the prime minister was saying had to be taken, were.

By November 5 this year the government had to indicate to the EU measures it would be taking in 2005/2006 for the deficit to go down reaching its target.

Mr Zarb said the social partners were usually consulted about the budget measures. "What was to be done this year?

"Were they to be consulted before the government went to the EU with its plan? And what if the EU did not accept this plan?" Mr Zarb asked.

He pointed out that its four sub-committees, which dealt with competitiveness, pensions, the public sector and the economy and health, were doing a lot of work within the MCESD.

The target was for the work to be completed in August when their reports should be issued. The different organisations that were on the MCESD would then give their input on the reports.

To see how efficient the MCESD was, Mr Zarb said, one had to see how the committees' work would develop.

Federation of Industry president Anton Borg said the FOI and other employers on the council had written to the chairman expressing their concern about the convergence plan.

They wanted to know what the measures, to be adopted to reduce the deficit to below three per cent, were.

The FOI, Mr Borg said, wanted to know if these measures affected competitiveness.

Mr Borg said the MCESD was not delivering as much as it could.

To obtain the utmost out of the council the government needed to be more conscious that consultation should be held before and not after decisions were taken. If this was done, the council would be much more effective than it was at present, Mr Borg added.