Malta has been placed with the group of countries which have "moderately implemented" the provisions of the EU's services directive in a new survey issued by Eurochambers - the umbrella organisation of EU Chambers of Commerce.
The survey, conducted among Chambers of Commerce throughout the EU shows that only nine out of the 27 member states fully complied with the services directive by the December 28, 2009 deadline. Implementation in the remaining 18 member states is average, as is in the case of Malta, or unsatisfactory because of problems of delays with legal and operational aspects.
According to the survey, although Malta has managed to pass through Parliament all the necessary legal aspects of the new directive, there is still some teething trouble on the operational side. This particularly regards the set-up of the Point of Single Contact (PSC) which should act as a one-stop-shop for the implementation of this directive.
Although according to the survey, the setting up of the PSC, both as a physical office and as an electronic platform is progressively advancing, it is still not yet complete.
With regard to online facilities, the survey states that a government tender for the procurement of the e-platform infrastructure and content-development allowing for the direct submission of licence applications and their subsequent authorisation was launched in July 2009.
"Given the time-frames required for the adjudication of the tender, it is not expected that the PSC will become operational before the end of March 2010," the survey states.
According to information given by Malta's Chamber of Commerce, a final decision on the physical hosting of the PSC is also still pending.
"However, it is likely that the physical repository of the PSC will be the recently set up logistics support office within Malta Enterprise."
On the legislative aspects, Eurochambers states that the Maltese government implemented, by the stipulated deadline, a horizontal act called the Services (Internal Market) Act which was debated and approved by the national Parliament after a second reading. All of the directive's provisions have been formally implemented and incorporated into Maltese law.
Overall it seems that Malta's Chamber of Commerce is satisfied with the progress made so far.
"The Malta Chamber is not aware of any specific areas presenting obstacles for the establishment of service providers or of particular obligations. All formal obstacles in the Maltese regulatory regimes have been identified and the implementing provisions align them to the directives provisions," the survey states.
Commenting on the overall results, the secretary general of Eurochambers Arnaldo Abruzzini said that some member states did not use the three-year implementation period properly.
"The delays in several countries make the EU-wide picture extremely patchy and create a suboptimal situation for a service provider seeking to enter another EU national market," he said.