Increase EU involvement - Frendo

The European Union should not be perceived as something from which Malta can only receive but, it must be realised, that the EU is something we can be actively involved in, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said.

Dr Frendo was speaking during a presentation to mark the launch of a consultation process on the setting up the Forum Malta fl-Ewropa (Malta in Europe Forum) that will incorporate the functions of the Malta-EU Information Centre (MIC) and the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC).

Yesterday's meeting, the first in the two-stage consultation process, was attended by members of the former MEUSAC Core Group, directors of European Affairs in the various ministries and local representatives in the Economic and Social Committee of the European Union (formerly commonly known as Ecosoc). A second consultation meeting will be held early in July with NGOs and civil society members.

Dr Frendo said the forum will act as a point of reference on EU-Malta relations for civil society and for citizens, serving also as a consultative mechanism and a platform to discuss new ideas.

The forum will have three main objectives: providing information on the EU; consultation with civil society, including engagement in European issues and in the EU decision-making process; and supporting the private sector in accessing EU funding schemes.

"The process will ensure that the forum provides the views of civil society in the upstream process of formulating Malta's positions in the European Union," Dr Frendo said.

He added that he believed that the forum had a fourth role - that of taking an active role to formulate views and ideas that contribute to the EU agenda.

Although he recognised that this was no easy task, Dr Frendo said that the forum would work to ensure that Malta did not merely abide by the agenda set by the EU, but that it contributed to the agenda by inserting ideas.

Dr Frendo emphasised the nature of the forum as a forum for civil society but also said that the forum would need to engage with the Maltese MEPs and with the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Maltese Parliament.

The structure of the forum, he said, was to be kept simple. It would consist of a central committee, a number of sub-committees - equivalent to the various formations of the Council of Ministers - and a secretariat.

The minister further explained that forum meetings will be supplemented by an electronic consultation process. The forum will then communicate the results of the consultation process to the responsible line ministries.

"These consultation channels, made available through the forum, will not stop the line ministries from consulting individual operators if and where necessary, and over and above the work of the forum," he said.

At the end of the presentation people present shared their views on the forum and welcomed the initiative and the consultative process, Dr Frendo said.

In a statement to the media the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions (CMTU) condemned the ministry for not being invited to what it called the "launching of Forum for Europe".

"For reasons unknown to the CMTU, officials of our confederation have been totally ignored. The CMTU discovered through a ministry official that the CMTU was not invited.

"It is pertinent to point out that the CMTU, besides being a member of the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development (MCESD), is also represented on the European Economic and Social Committee and was also an active participant of the former MEUSAC.

The CMTU condemned the Foreign Ministry's decision and said it expected an immediate explanation.

The ministry clarified that yesterday's meeting was not the launch of the forum but of a two-stage consultation process leading to the forum.

Moreover, the ministry added, it had issued invitations to yesterday's meeting according to official information published in a press release of the Department of Information, dated April 30 last year, which announced the names of the persons who represented Malta in EU institutions.