INTRODUCTORY SPEECH BY THE HON. LAWRENCE GONZI DEPUTY PRIME-MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICY ON THE OCCASION OF THE HIGH LEVEL TRIPARTITE MEETING FOR ILO CONSTITUENTS IN EU ACCESSION COUNTRIES

Mr. Tremaud,

Your Excellencies

Honourable Colleague Ministers

Social Partner Representatives

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with pleasure that I welcome you all to Malta for this High-Level Tripartite ILO Conference bringing together social partners from EU Accession Countries. In the first instance, I extend warm greetings on behalf of my Government and the people of Malta – you honour us by your presence and you enrich us by your experiences.

You have set foot in a country that has always been at the cross-point of cultures. Malta is an island that has, as its heritage, a synthesis of elements from many cultural traditions. Situated in the Mediterranean basin at the crossroads between North and South and between East and West, Malta and our sister island Gozo, have been fought for by various powers, all of which realised the strategic benefits which accrue by virtue of its position at the frontier of Europe and North Africa. Many a-strife took place in our territorial waters and many were the empires that settled and lived with our ancestors leaving an indelible mark into our culture, tradition and language. I am sure you will experience the living testimony of this legacy in your cultural tour tomorrow!

Today we are convening for a particular event. What brings us together is the common ground that exists between us all, even though we come from different cultural backgrounds, we have different histories, and different economic and social structures.

Allow me to outline to you what I consider to be the major aspects which bring us together notwithstanding our diversity.

We are all committed to see a united Europe because we believe that this will enhance political, economic and social stability in a continent which has seen long centuries of strife and warfare. We are therefore the privileged generation that has realised the value of peace, co-operation, respect for human dignity and solidarity between nations, strongly believing that these values are the key to economic and social progress. As applicant countries towards full EU membership we realise the potential gains arising from increased solidarity between this emerging economic and political bloc. Our diversity is the source of our strength and our future lies within a group of similar minded nations whose aim is to increase economic prosperity and to ameliorate the quality of life of its citizens.

We are also gathered here, representing our governments and accompanied by senior representatives of our social partners. The message which we transmit is an unequivocal statement which needs to be underscored. It is a statement highlighting the crucial role which social partners play in the economic and social development of our countries. In a sense we are therefore reiterating our commitment to design our policies on strong and constructive social dialogue which involves key players at an early stage, before decisions are taken.

Those of us who represent government are fully conscious of our duty to take decisions and to be accountable to the electorate which entrusted us with this responsibility. But we realise that we need strong national structures which will allow our social partners to participate in the process leading to those decisions. Obviously, the success of these structures depends on one crucial factor – namely our ability to add value to sectoral interest by placing it at the service of the national interest.

There is another consideration which highlights the commonality between us. The delegations which are present here today, are led by Ministers representing specific sectors falling within social policy. Together with our social partners we represent the labour sector of our countries. We share, therefore, a unique and precious responsibility – namely that of enhancing employment opportunities and conditions of work for all our citizens.

It is a responsibility which means that we must make sure that our education systems empower our younger generations to take up the modern challenges of a globalised economy driven by information technology. It means that we must make sure that our national employment and training structures provide the best support for our citizens to find employment. It means that we must make sure that we have adequate training and retraining machinery which guarantees flexibility and mobility. It means that we must guarantee conditions of work for all workers, including the highest standards of health and safety. It means that we must make sure that every single citizen who is able and willing to work, is given the opportunity to do so.

The responsibilities which we all shoulder, are therefore enormous. This is precisely why my government embraced wholeheartedly the ILO's initiative to organise this high-level tripartite conference for ILO constituents in the EU Accession Countries. Undoubtedly, the experience, assistance and support of the ILO to the thirteen candidate countries have not only made this meeting possible but they are also an integral part of an on-going effort by this organisation to support candidate countries in the transition process which must take place and which provides us all with some exciting challenges.

In this context, allow me to take this opportunity to thank the ILO for the expertise which it has provided to my Ministry in two specific areas which I would like to mention by way of recognition and appreciation. The first concerns an initiative to strengthen our national social dialogue structure which – until today – is known as the Malta Council for Economic Development. It is a forum which has served us well over the years but which now needs to respond to new realities.

Thanks to the ILO – and particularly to Heribert Scharrenbroich and Giuseppe Casale – we are today making public a legislative proposal which will enhance this forum by widening its scope to include the social development of our country in its terms of reference. The proposal includes the setting up of a Civil Society Commission and thus acknowledges the need to widen the dialogue in a manner which will include Civil Society as an important partner in the discussions.

The second area concerns a radical shake up and upgrading of our existing health and safety machinery which is intended to raise the health and safety standards we want to achieve in our country. Again, I would like to express our appreciation to Heribert Scharrenbroich and Mr von Richtoffen for their contribution and expertise in drafting a law which will be discussed in Parliament, probably this very evening.

Both these initiatives send a strong local message. Together with our social partners we want to make a quality leap which will benefit our citizens. We are using the EU social model to guide us through this process because it is a model which has a proven track record and which works. It presents us with some challenges which we are determined to overcome because we believe that economic development can only be properly measured if it accounts for parallel social development.

Allow me now to make a brief reference to the topic of our deliberations and discussions. As I have already stated, my government fully recognises the increasing role of social dialogue as a key contributor to governance, economic prosperity and social development. The globalisation of trade and commerce, the digital revolution and the atypical changes in the labour market have all prompted a new form of tri-partitism. It is a sort of functional metamorphosis that elevates the role of social dialogue from one which focuses on distributive bargaining to one which focuses on social concertation.

The focusing on equality of treatment of men and women will help us consider whether the notion of tripartitism involving government, employers, and trade unions, of which the ILO provides the classic model, needs to evolve into a quadripartite structure to ensure the representation of the non-monetarised sector of the working world. The majority of citizens of our countries, although not in paid employment, do work. Although outside the labour market, people in unpaid work subsidise the labour market by such activities as unpaid domestic work, the education of children, and voluntary work. This gender perspective needs to be mainstreamed into the social dialogue process, and it is for this reason that the topic regarding equality of treatment and equal remuneration for work of equal value has been included in our agenda.

For the Maltese delegation therefore, this Conference and the presence of the ILO in Malta, is of great significance. Indeed it is propitious, since it is providing the value-added critical mass for the enhancement and further development of social dialogue in Malta.

Deserving then is my government's appreciation and gratitude to ILO, not only for choosing our small island to host this year's High-Level Tripartite Conference, but also for the valuable assistance and contribution to the promotion of social dialogue. It is imperative then to emphasize the increasingly significant role, which the ILO is playing in this global village, true to its mission of humanising work in all its forms.

Particular gratitude goes to the French EU Presidency who under the auspices of Madame Martine Aubry, our French counterpart for Employment and Solidarity, has co-organised this Conference. The EU French Presidency's involvement in this High-Level Tripartite Seminar once again highlights the Commission's commitment towards the enlargement process – a process which all of us here are avidly working upon in our respective accession negotiations with the Commission.

So, welcome to Malta. Welcome to this High-Level Tripartite Conference. May we all work very hard and benefit from this experience. While wishing you all a pleasant stay we shall do our very best to ensure that you all have a memorable and fruitful visit.