Over the past five years, the European Parliament has dealt with a considerable number of issues that were either of direct or indirect interest to Maltese business. A number of agreements were successfully brokered with the involvement of the Parliament, and as a result, several important legislative items - including the Services Directive, the chemicals legislation (Reach) and the climate change package - have been adopted.
However, certain debates in the last legislature have sometimes lacked a thorough understanding of the macroeconomic environment in which businesses operate. Furthermore, there has also been a lack of understanding of the specific structural challenges impeding healthier economic performance and growth in insular markets, such as the Maltese one.
For instance, Maltese businesses expected a more ambitious outcome with the enactment of the Services Directive, which is to be transposed by the end of this year. Conversely, uncertainties regarding the protracted discussions at the European Parliament on the retention of the opt-out clause and the calculation of on-call time as inactive working time in the context of the revision of the Working Time Directive could have been framed within the logic of the flexibilities that need to be afforded to the private sector.
Likewise, the whole discussion on the Reach regulation at the European Parliament could have secured the final balanced outcome of the "one substance, one registration" principle much earlier on in the legislative process. This would have avoided the uncertainty that for a long time plagued the pharmaceutical, chemicals and paint-manufacturing industries besides other firms involved in the supply-chain of medicinal products.
As the joint EU advisory office of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, the Malta Business Bureau believes that there is ample scope to include the particular economic challenges that are faced by Maltese enterprise, within the political agenda of the European Parliament.
The recent past shows that the European Parliament has been instrumental in enacting more stringent legislation and adding more administrative and regulatory costs onto business whenever a new legislative proposal was guided through the co-decision procedure.
This is a political trend of significant concern to all economic operators, irrespective of the operational location within the European single market. This concern is not an exception to Maltese business.
Reversing this trend is imperative for Maltese business. It is important that the undisputed success of EU membership is further improved upon, making the development of EU regulations a less arduous venture in the coming years.
In this regard, the Malta Business Bureau is taking the initiative to present a Business Manifesto to all the Maltese MEP candidates. This manifesto outlines the key priorities for action in defence of Maltese business interests for the incoming 2009-2014 European Parliament.
The manifesto also presents a set of recommendations on how Maltese MEPs can better steer the European Parliament policy agenda in favour of local business, and how our elected MEPs can bring about greater visibility and added value on behalf of the Maltese business community.
The Malta Business Bureau will be launching its Business Manifesto at an event to be held on Monday, bringing together all the MEP candidates for an exchange of views on the regulatory and EU policy issues that are of interest to local enterprise.
The MBB has also conducted a detailed survey with its members in order to assess the impact EU accession had on Maltese businesses. The results of this survey will be presented during a business breakfast tomorrow.
The articulation of Maltese business interests in the run-up to the European Parliament elections comes at a very timely moment when, due to the international economic crisis, it is vital to reinforce the message that a speedy economic recovery is intimately linked to policy initiatives supportive of the EU's internal market. Malta's economic wellbeing, in terms of investment attraction and employment generation, is increasingly dependent on the single market and this is precisely why local businesses need to make their voice heard at the next European elections.
The author is permanent delegate at the Brussels office of the Malta Business Bureau.