MALTA SECURES BREAKTHROUGH AGREEMENT ON FREE MOVEMENT OF WORKERS

The process of negotiations between Malta and the EU entered a new phase today as Malta successfully negotiated a safeguard with respect to the right of EU citizens to seek work in Malta after membership. At the same time, Malta also secured the right of Maltese citizens to seek work in the EU immediately upon membership.

This was the key result of the seventh meeting of the accession conference held today in Brussels between Malta and the EU, where the Maltese delegation was led by the Chairman of Malta’s Core Negotiating Group, Mr Richard Cachia Caruana.

Under the agreement reached today, Maltese citizens will be able to seek work in the EU and EEA countries from day one of Malta’s membership. On the other hand, Malta has reserved the right in urgent and exceptional cases to impose restrictions on the inward flow of EU workers into Malta in the event that this flow may negatively affect Malta’s labour market. In such cases, Malta would be able to suspend the right of EU citizens to work in Malta either generally or specifically in one or more sectors of the labour market. Malta’s safeguard will apply for a period of seven years. Additionally, the EU has also agreed to make a Joint Declaration with Malta that in future, "should the accession of Malta give rise to difficulties relating to the free movement of workers, the matter may be brought before the institutions of the Union in order to obtain a solution to this problem."

Malta is the only candidate country that has sought and obtained an arrangement of this nature. With respect to the Central and East European countries, the EU has imposed a seven-year transition period on the free movement of workers from these countries, whereas in the case of Cyprus, no limitations at all will apply on either side.

In this area, once Malta becomes a member, EU rules will also give Maltese citizens new rights regarding residence; the recognition, in other Member States of Maltese qualifications for professional purposes; as well as significant improvements in the entitlement of Maltese citizens to social security benefits in other EU countries through the co-ordination of social security systems among the EU Member States.

The EU accepted Malta’s requests on free movement of persons and Malta was therefore able to close negotiations on this area during today’s meeting. In addition, today, Malta also opened negotiations in the area of Justice and Home Affairs which deals with issues such as border control, visa policy, asylum and the fight against corruption and crime.

Addressing the conference, Mr Cachia Caruana welcomed the agreement on free movement of persons. He said Maltese citizens would start benefiting from their EU rights immediately upon membership. On the other hand, the agreement also fully addressed concerns raised in Malta that EU membership may bring with it high influxes of additional labour. This was achieved by ensuring that Malta would still be able to take effective remedial action in any such event.

Mr Cachia Caruana said that the agreement on this issue was a "manifestation that the accession negotiations can and do take full account of the particular needs and circumstances of a candidate country". He said that this agreement said a lot on the kind of Union that Malta would be joining. He also underlined the fact that in the process of negotiations, new and creative solutions could be found to solve complex issues.

Mr Cachia Caruana added that this result was "equally a major source of encouragement for the rest of the negotiations where other issues of importance and sensitivity will be taken up."

Addressing the conference on behalf of the Swedish presidency, Ambassador Gunnar Lund recalled the recent conclusions of the Gothenburg Summit meeting where EU leaders stressed that the enlargement process was irreversible. The Summit also confirmed the end of 2002 as the deadline for the completion of negotiations and that the EU’s objective is that new Member States will participate in the next European Parliament election due in June 2004 as members.

Eneko Landaburu, Director-General for Enlargement in the European Commission expressed his satisfaction at the agreement reached at today’s meeting and said that Malta had now opened negotiations on all areas except for agriculture and institutions. He also referred to the Gothenburg Summit that had given a new impetus to the new enlargement process. He said that it was now clear that all candidate countries had the opportunity to catch up with others in order to be able to complete negotiations by the end of next year.

Mr Richard Cachia Caruana was accompanied by Victor Camilleri, Malta’s Ambassador in Brussels, Dr Simon Busuttil, Head of the Malta-EU Information Centre, Ms Graziella Pullicino, co-ordinator in the EU Negotiations Secretariat and a number of officials from Malta’s Embassy in Brussels.