PROĊESS TA' NEGOZJATI BEJN MALTA U L-UE: ŻEWĠ OQSMA OĦRA MAGĦLUQA

Il-konferenza dwar il-proċess ta' sħubija ta' Malta fl-UE re'għet iltaqgħet dalgħodu fi Brussel fejn kien hemm qbil bejn Malta u l-Unjoni Ewropea sabiex issir rakkomandazzjoni lill-Ministri ta' l-Affarijiet Barranin illi jingħalqu żew' oqsma miftuħa għan-negozjati fil-laqgħa Ministerjali li jmiss li għandha issir fil-21 ta' Novembru.

Dawn l-oqsma huma l-Li'i tal-Kumpaniji u l-Unjoni Ekonomika u Monetarja, li t-tnejn infetħu mill-Presidenza Franċiża.

L-Unjoni Ewropea issottomettiet ukoll il-Pożizzjoni Komuni tagħha dwar l-oqsma tal-Moviment '�ieles tal-Kapital, il-Kompetizzjoni u l-Politika Soċjali u tax-Xogħol.

Matul il-laqgħa ta' dalgħodu, ic-Chairman tal-Grupp Ewlieni ta' Negozjaturi Maltin, is-Sur Richard Cachia Caruana, qal illi Malta qiegħda tapprezza aħjar l-opportunitajiet illi i''ib magħha l-isħubija. Huwa sostna illi bil-progress li qiegħed issir fin-negozjati, il-pajjiż qiegħed iħejji ruħu sabiex jipparteċipa b'mod sħiħ fl-Unjoni. Is-Sur Cachia Caruana żied illi Malta, kif ukoll il-pajjiżi kandidati l-oħra, qiegħda tantiċipa illi l-Kunsill Ewropew, li se jiltaqa' f'Nizza ix-xahar id-dieħel, jagħti spinta sabiex in-negozjati jidħlu f'fazi aktar avvanzata.

Waqt din il-laqgħa l-Ambaxxatur Franċiż Pierre Vimont, saħaq illi l-Presidenza Franċiża hija sodisfatta ħafna bil-progress ta' Malta. Huwa qal illi dan huwa dovut għall-mod eżemplari illi ż-żew' naħat qiegħdin jaħdmu flimkien.

Minn naħa tiegħu, id-Direttur Ġenerali għat-Tkabbir fil-Kummissjoni Ewropea, is-Sur Eneko Landaburu, qal illi Malta kompliet tagħmel progress impressjonanti. Huwa fakkar illi Malta irnexxiela tagħlaq in-negozjati fi tnax-il qasam wara biss tmien xhur.

Id-diskors sħiħ tas-Sur Richard Cachia Caruana, siltiet mid-diskorsi tal-kelliema l-oħra, kif ukoll tabella illi turi fejn waslu n-negozjati s'issa huma annessi ma' din l-istqarrija.

Is-Sur Cachia Caruana kien akkumpanjat mill-Ambaxxatur ta' Malta fi Brussel, Victor Camilleri, minn Patrick Tabone, Assistant Personali tal-Ministru ta' l-Affarijiet Barranin, Graziella Pullicino, Ko-ordinatur fis-Segretarjat tan-Negozjati ma' l-UE, u minn numru ta' uffiċċjali oħra mill-Ambaxxata ta' Malta fi Brussel.

diskorsi annessi .../..

STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF MALTA BY MR RICHARD CACHIA CARUANA, CHAIRMAN, CORE NEGOTIATING GROUP AT THE FOURTH MEETING OF THE ACCESSION CONFERENCE AT DEPUTY LEVEL, BRUSSELS. 16 NOVEMBER 2000.

We are today taking another useful and encouraging step forward in the process of Malta's negotiations for membership of the European Union. The time since our last Deputies' meeting has been short, but quite active and productive. As a result, we are in the position of being able to discuss another five chapters – Company Law, Economic and Monetary Union, Free Movement of Capital, Social Policy and Employment, and Competition. We are also in a position to recommend the provisional closure of two of them – Company Law and Economic and Monetary Union.

Work on the Transport chapter, which is the last of the nine chapters identified by the French Presidency, is also sufficiently advanced to justify our expectation that, even if the schedule of formal meetings does not permit it to be discussed this month, it will be ready for the next meeting of Deputies.

This means that by the end of the French presidency up to seventeen chapters will have been discussed. On twelve of these chapters the negotiating work will also have been provisionally completed.

One of the chapters which we are recommending for provisional closure today – Economic and Monetary Union - deals with one of the newer and evolving dimensions of the European Union. Malta looks forward to the opportunity of being closely involved in the process towards economic and monetary union. The decision to recommend this chapter for provisional closure at this stage underlines the extent to which Malta is already aligned with the Acquis.

The other chapter ready for closure is the one on Company Law. Malta's legislation and administrative structures in this area are very advanced. Our company law legislation was enacted in the mid-nineties, while over the last few months we have enacted major new legislation on industrial and intellectual property. As a result we are already well aligned with the Union's Acquisunder this chapter.

Two of the other chapters we are discussing today, Free Movement of Capital and Competition, deal with complex and sensitive areas of the internal market. I believe that I am justified in saying that, overall, the positions we have presented in this regard also show the advanced level of convergence which Malta already has with the Union.

There are, however, a number of additional clarifications which the Union is requesting us to provide for both chapters, and there are also some issues which require some intensive negotiations. Given the nature of the subjects under consideration this is to be expected.

As I pointed out at our last meeting, there are a few key issues in these two chapters which go to the heart of Malta's social and economic well being. On our side we recognise that, in becoming a member of the Union, Malta will form part of a closely knit internal market system which can only work effectively with the active and wholehearted involvement of all its components. Malta's unequivocal commitment is to form part of this system. We are convinced that we have the capabilities, resources and determination to do this.

The special arrangements we are seeking in the areas of state aid and of purchase of property, though very different in nature, are intended to safeguard the strength and integrity of our social and economic structures in such a way as to ensure that we will indeed play our full role in the internal market. It is therefore not our objective to stand aside from any of the basic commitments of membership, but rather to equip ourselves fully to live up to these commitments.

The last chapter we are considering today is the one on Social Policy and Employment. Here Malta is requesting four transitional periods, related both to the aspect of Labour Law as well as to the aspect of Health and Safety. We are making these requests following a wide-ranging and detailed examination of the technical and financial issues involved. Our objective is to ensure our proper and full compliance with the acquis in this important area. From its side the European Union is here also requesting a number of clarifications on various aspects of our position.

Malta looks forward to the opportunity to pursue more detailed discussions on these matters in the weeks ahead. In this spirit we are examining with deep interest the ideas on the methods of negotiations put forward by the Commission in the Strategy Report which it presented last week. A number of these ideas touch directly upon aspects of the negotiations which have been a matter of concern to Malta and other candidate countries up to now. We welcome and encourage all ideas aimed at better structuring the negotiations in a way which permits a quicker resolution of relatively minor technical issues, focuses attention on the few key issues and starts identifying a time frame for the pursuit and conclusion of the negotiations.

At the same time we wish to look a bit more closely into proposals which could imply that, from the very outset, certain requests would be unilaterally classified as unacceptable. The proposals aimed at setting a road map to guide member states in defining their common negotiating positions on identified issues would also need to be examined in the light of the evident differences that exist among the various candidate countries.

In the report it presented last week the Commission also encourages those candidate countries, which have not yet opened all the chapters, to present their negotiating positions on the outstanding chapters as soon as possible. We welcome the spirit in which this recommendation is made, namely the objective to have these chapters opened as early as possible in 2001. We also welcome the intentions being expressed by the incoming Swedish presidency on this matter. As already stated, Malta's intention remains that of submitting most of its negotiating positions on the remaining chapters before the end of this year. All will have been submitted by early 2001. Our internal preparations on these chapters are very much advanced and the indications given by both the Commission and the in-coming presidency have encouraged us to intensify our work.

The concluding weeks of the French presidency will be a busy and critical period for the future of the Union in general and the enlargement process in particular. The conclusions of the Nice summit both with regard to the Intergovernmental Conference on Institutional Reform as well as with regard to the proposals of the Commission in their strategy report should give the enlargement process an immediate and qualitative push forward. Together with the other candidate countries Malta feels justified in expecting that, after Nice, the negotiations will move into a new and advanced phase which will hopefully lead to an early and successful conclusion.

As this is expected to be the last occasion on which the Deputies Meeting is being held under the French Presidency, I would like to express my personal appreciation, and the appreciation of all my colleagues, for the thoroughness and energy with which the Presidency has managed the negotiations over the past months. We recognise that the demands arising from simultaneous negotiations with twelve candidates constitute a daunting task.. It becomes even more daunting when coupled with the other demands on the Union's presidency, which at this time also include the Inter-Governmental Conference on Institutional Reform.

As on previous occasions, I also wish to express our appreciation to the Commission Services and the Council Secretariat for their co-operation. As the negotiations become more complex our demands on their time and attention increase. We have yet to find them wanting.

As Malta moves towards the end of its first year of accession negotiations its administration and people are certainly developing a better understanding of the challenges residing membership of the Union. At the same time, we are equally better placed to appreciate the opportunities which lie ahead.

Extracts from the statements delivered by Ambassador Pierre Vimont of France and Director General Eneko Landaburu of DG Enlargement.

Ambassador Pierre Vimont, Permanent Representative of France, said that the Presidency was once more happy to express its congratulations to Malta for the significant progress achieved in its membership negotiations. He added that the Presidency wished to underline that it was determined to open all nine chapters with Malta and to continue to make progress on the chapters already opened. Ambassador Vimont stressed that the French Presidency intended to use to the full the time that remained until the end of its Presidency to advance further the negotiations process.

Ambassador Vimont said that Malta was taking another important step forward in its membership negotiations, and the catching up process was already well on track. He added that the way the Accession Conference was proceeding clearly showed that the speed of the negotiations depended on the progress made in the adoption and implementation of the acquis.

At this stage Ambassador Vimont referred to the Commission's regular report on Malta and said that the evaluation of the report was an important element in the negotiation process and that the member states would follow the conclusions of the report.

Ambassador Vimont then referred to the Chapters on Company Law and on Economic and Monetary Union. He said that the Union had concluded that no more negotiations were necessary at this stage on these two Chapters. He added that with regards to Company Law this conclusion had been reached following the detailed supplementary information submitted by Malta on its enforcement of intellectual property rights, Community trademarks and pharmaceutical products. He said that this additional information had convinced the member states that on these matters Malta was well advanced in the adoption of the acquis. He invited the Maltese Delegation to confirm this result of the negotiations.

Ambassador Vimont then referred to the other three Chapters on the agenda, on which the Union felt that more negotiations were necessary. These are Free Movement of Capital, Competition and Social Policy and Employment.

He described Competition as having strategic importance in the acquis and in the implementation of the internal market. On this Chapter he said he wished to point out two things. The first thing was that the acquis on this Chapter had to be adopted by Malta before accession. The second was that the Union wished to stress the need for strengthening the administrative infrastructure needed for the implementation of the acquis.

Ambassador Vimont then spoke about the Chapter on Social Policy and Employment, stressing the importance of this part of the acquis for the proper functioning of the internal market. He referred to the social dimension of the Union as underlined in the Amsterdam Treaty and said that the Union was inviting Malta to adopt the social policy and employment acquis by the time of accession. He explained that this would require administrative structures that had to be functioning by accession.

The Director General of DG Enlargement of the European Commission, Mr. Eneko Landaburu referred to the conclusions of the Commission's regular report on Malta and to the Enlargement Strategy paper recently adopted by the Commission. He expressed the hope that these two Commission documents would help accession negotiations to move into a more substantive phase and to advance more smoothly. He added that the Commission's decisions expressed in these documents conformed completely to the Helsinki conclusions in that candidate countries would continue to be regarded on their own merit and that there would be realistic catching up possibilities.

Mr. Landaburu added that since the last meeting of the Conference Malta continued to make impressive progress. He said that sufficient progress had been made to permit five Chapters to be put on the agenda and for two of them to be closed. He wished to mention only a few points on the Chapters on which further negotiations were needed.

Mr. Landaburu also hoped that progress would be made on the Chapter on Social Policy and Employment once the Commission would have examined the supplementary information submitted by Malta.

Mr. Landaburu also spoke on the Chapter on Transport. He said that the Commission would transmit its Draft Common Position on this Chapter as early as possible so that the Council would be able to evaluate it during the course of this Presidency.

Mr. Landaburu once more congratulated Malta on the remarkable progress it had achieved. He concluded by saying that Malta's achievements made him hope that the accession negotiations would progress quickly even on the more complicated chapters to come.