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What are the immediate impacts of EU membership on the Maltese tourism industry as a whole?
Introduction
EU membership implies an instant wider global exposure to Malta as a new EU Member State because it would be included in all EU promotions and represented in all EU offices throughout the world. For a country the size of Malta, being “discovered” is often still a challenge to be overcome. EU membership will also give companies the right to establish business or to provide services in any EU country. The national airline, Air Malta, through the EU’s “third package” will gain a wider and more flexible access to the EU market by operating flights which do not necessarily start or end in Malta. In fact Air Malta will start London-Sicily flights from 2 May, the day after Malta joins the EU. Membership will bring tougher standards and, while welcomed by consumers, standards imply a cost for operators in the industry. The overall tourism package will be affected as EU membership will boost investment in major public infrastructure such as roads, airport and port. Duty-free shopping will no longer be available for passengers who travel from Malta to another EU country and vice-versa. Airport shops will sell duty-paid to EU travellers and duty-free to those travelling outside the EU. Malta’s visa policy will conform with the EU visa list by membership. Malta will be able to adopt the EURO not earlier than two years after membership, provided it fulfils all criteria required for adopting the EURO.
Pre-Accession Negotiations
Since its establishment in September 1999, the Malta Tourism Authority has been very closely monitoring the process by which the Maltese Islands were being prepared for full membership of the European Union. Initially, this monitoring process consisted mostly in following the issues of direct relevance to the tourism industry through the process of Malta’s adoption of the EU body of law. This was done through the screening of the ‘National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis’ (NPAA), which was an annual report on the legislative progress made by Malta covering all sectors and administrative aspects of the Islands’ governance[1]. Secondly, the negotiation process was also an area wherein the tourism sector contributed, namely through the consultative framework of the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) by means of representation from trade unions, constituted bodies and special interest groups (Non-Governmental Organisations)[2].
Structural Funds
During the following and most intensive phase of preparation, the Ministry of Tourism, in close collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority, has participated very actively in the preparation for the absorption of the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds, which will amount to Lm90 million for the period 2004-2006. This has been done through MoT/MTA’s contribution in the National Development Plan (December 2001-July 2002), followed by the drafting of the Single Programming Document (SPD) and the Programme Compliment (PC) (September 2002-March 2003). These documents contain the details of proposed projects in all sectors of the economy which will directly benefit from the Structural and Cohesion Funds. The general descriptions of the approved projects are found in the SPD (www.ppcd.com.mt), while details of the projects’ concrete objectives and indicators are developed in the Programme Compliment.
Tourism has submitted proposals of a value of around 8 million euros in projects which have been identified and refined (through a wide ranging consultation process) during the last twenty four months. There are four major areas of intervention, namely, (a) projects of assistance to tourism enterprises; (b) upgrading of Malta’s cultural heritage (c) projects for the upgrading of tourism infrastructure (government projects); and (d) upgrading of tourism human resources through projects for training and HR development.
