Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has acquired new competences in a number of policy fields such as international investment policy and tourism policy.
The European Commission adopted a communication outlining the prospective scope and substantive contents of what a future EU international investment policy should deal with. The development of a “comprehensive European international investment policy” is in pursuit of the Lisbon Treaty’s provisions granting the EU exclusive competence with regard to liberalisation of foreign direct investment policies.
The development of an EU investment policy implies that the European Commission becomes now the main institutional actor responsible for enacting binding legislation applicable to both investment liberalisation and investment protection policies. According to the communication, the EU will be integrating its investment liberalisation policy as carried out in the various FTA negotiations with investment protection efforts.
An EU investment policy ushers in a number of issues for Maltese business; it will affect the way Maltese business investments are safeguarded and protected abroad as well as the way inward investment from non-EU countries is regulated in the European single market, including also the Maltese jurisdiction.
From a Maltese business perspective, it is important that EU investment negotiations with third countries, reflect well the geographical and market mix of the different EU member-states. Discrimination between existing priority investment sectors as pursued by member-states’ governments should be avoided as much as possible.
It is vital for local business that the new EU investment policy ensures that the commercial benefits accrued through EU-brokered investment liberalisation efforts are one and the same for all Member States thereby maintaining a level playing field for all EU economic operators.
New EU legislation in the pipeline for bio-waste?
During its last plenary session the European Parliament called on the European Commission to come forward with a legislative proposal to regulate the collection, separation and recycling of bio-waste.
MEPs argue that the EU needs a specific bio-waste directive, the core purpose of which would be to mandate the compulsory separation, collection and recycling of bio-waste. Specifically, the European Parliament is urging the Commission to review existing EU bio-waste legislation, and to table a draft directive by the end of this year introducing ambitious recycling targets for bio-waste and to introduce a quality-based classification of the different types of compost generated from bio-waste.
The introduction of EU-wide rules regulating collection of bio-waste would not only provide greater legal clarity and better enforcement of implementation but also help contribute directly to more and better resource efficiency through recycling. Maltese businesses believe that EU legislation on bio-waste collection is not necessarily the best available tool to combat bio-waste disposal. EU legislation in this field is only advisable should there have been a prevailing situation of comparative levels of bio-waste generation and environmentally-friendly disposal systems across all the EU member-states. This is clearly not the case.
Large disparities exist between member states when it comes to bio-waste landfilling practices and composting rates. These are acute reminders that specific solutions for country-specific waste disposal/recycling challenges should be pursued rather than a one-size-fits all legislative approach.
The creation of feasible bio-waste collection schemes has been a success story in some EU countries. Given the disproportionate financial burden that mandatory bio-waste separation and collection would entail for the local catering industry it is in the general economic interest that public authorities focus research onto feasible and cost-neutral bio-waste collection schemes.