UMCE co-ordinator to promote Med business interests

Nominated E.U. co-ordinator of the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprise by the recent UMCE general assembly in Sliema, Adrian Bajada, president of the Malta Federation of Industry, will be actively promoting the interests of Mediterranean business in Brussels over the next two years.

UMCE was set up in 2004 with a secretariat in Tunis and has developed into a network of national business federations from some Mediterranean EU countries and from all the south Mediterranean countries belonging to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

"My UMCE remit will be to present our views to both the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and the European Commission on a range of issues, in particular the need for the increased liberalisation of the region's south-south trade, to complement the present north-south liberalisation process," Mr Bajada told The Sunday Times in an exclusive interview.

"UMCE also needs to make widely known the opportunities available in our very dynamic and fast-growing region for attracting and promoting north-south business ventures."

Mr Bajada will be discussing future UMCE co-operation with the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (the Movement of Enterprises of France), when he will participate in the delegation accompanying Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on his official visit to France later this month

Together with UNICE and the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations, UMCE co-organised the sixth Euro-Mediterranean Business Summit in Valencia, Spain, last November. The conference submitted a list of ten recommendations to the subsequent Euro-Mediterranean summit of heads of state or government in Barcelona.

"UMCE's aspirations were fairly well reflected in the five-year Work Programme adopted by the Barcelona Summit," he continued. "We fully support the programme's recognition of the need to create jobs in the region and kickstart liberalisation of regional trade in services.

"We particularly welcome the Commission's enhanced effort to ensure convergence of national technical legislations on standards and customs rules to facilitate trade creation and attract investment. This process should also lead to greater integration of the EU-25 and Euromed partner countries' economies."

Regional economic integration can only be successfully completed by opening up the traditionally protected industrial and agricultural markets, and achieving the partnership goal of establishing a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area by 2010 - strongly supported by UMCE.

However, Mr Bajada admitted that trade liberalisation implied an economic cost for those industries enjoying protection behind high tariff barriers. The phased approach to liberalisation recommended by the recent interim report of the ongoing Sustainability Impact Assessment of the EMFTA undertaken by Manchester University for the European Commission required analysis within the context of the current negotiations in the World Trade Organisation.

"The EU's readiness to eliminate export subsidies on agricultural goods by 2013 as part of an overall multilateral deal, announced at WTO's ministerial conference in Hong Kong last December, will have a direct bearing in the medium to long-term on the sensitive issue of Mediterranean agricultural trade liberalisation - which however needs a cautious approach for various reasons."

From a Maltese business perspective, the achievement of further Euro-Mediterranean trade liberalisation should provide additional opportunities for Maltese industry intent on exploiting new market openings both for export and subsidiary operations - by making the best use of the investment opportunities afforded by Malta's long-standing and strategic relationship with most North African countries.

UMCE supports calls for the reform of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, according to Mr Bajada. "Its ambitions need to be practically and adequately financed by the EU. Greater flexibility is necessary in the operation of the funding instruments available to both public and private stakeholders. New synergies need to be developed with other European instruments, in particular with the FEMIP (Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership) managed by the European Investment Bank."

"The opportunities under the future European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (within the EU 2007-2013 Financial Perspectives, pending adoption) must be properly exploited and promoted for the benefit of all partner countries. Also, the public's access to information on most EU-related issues needs improvement as does related media coverage.

"Finally, UMCE and its members should be invited by the EU to participate in the establishment and implementation of the Neighbourhood Action Plans for the south partner states, which has not happened so far."