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Legislative Harmonisation effecting Tourism
Other areas which will be directly influenced by Malta’s accession to full EU membership are to be found in the three NPAA documents. A basic summary of the most relevant areas for tourism is found in a study made for the Ministry for Tourism entitled ‘Report on Malta's Accession Negotiations with the European Union - What is the outcome for Malta's Tourism Industry?’[1]
The areas of major concern for the tourism industry consist of the following items which are all treated individually in this report[2]:
- Free movement of services: the MTA is mentioned in the NPAA in its capacity to issue trading licenses for particular services in the tourism industry. Any administrative procedures that effectively limit the establishment and provision of services by non-Maltese nationals will be removed. Relevant legislative amendments have already been effected.
- Free movement of persons: Malta has obtained a seven-year period barring EU workers from settling in Malta; in exceptional cases unilateral measures can be effected by Malta to safeguard the Maltese workforce in sensitive sectors even after this period expires. All of this applies also to employment in the tourism industry and all related areas.
- Free movement of goods: the impact in this area will be mostly through the removal of trade restrictions for products originating in the EU, including food and drink items.
- Transport policy: this includes measures for implementation of EC Directives and Regulations in the areas of land transport (mainly legislation on vehicular licensing, safety and roadworthiness, as well as public transportation regulations); maritime transport (of relevance to tourism are the drafting of national ports policies which will integrate cruise-liner traffic, and the Malta-Gozo passenger and cargo service which will be liberalized following the expiration of existing contracts); and air transport (full harmonization with the Acquis will effect market access with regards to Malta-originating commercial non-scheduled flights, the adoption of the ‘Third Package’ which will require the restructuring of AirMalta p.l.c. due to access to previously unavailable intra-community air routes, as well as the liberalization of licenses for air transport services).
- Consumer and Health protection: tourism is mainly effected by two areas of legislation, one covering consumer rights for compensation in cases of denied boarding[3], and the other consisting of the package travel and timeshare directives, including the enforcement aspects which fall under the responsibility of MTA.[4]
- Social and Employment policy: tourism will be effected through regulations governing the use of work equipment. Malta has obtained a transitional period until the beginning of 2006 to come in line with EU standards for equipment used on the workplace. This is of particular relevance to restaurants and diving schools, among other tourism operations.
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): the tourism sector in the Maltese Islands consists mainly of SMEs. The NPAA (2002) considers the Promotion of Tourism as a major area within the general promotion of SMEs. Alignment with the relevant Community legislative framework has been effected by the Package Travel (LN157/00) and Timeshare Buyer Protection (LN269/00) regulations, which are already in force. Assistance to tourism SMEs also feature prominently in the SPD (Structural Funds).
Competition policy: the negotiations on competition policy have led to the gradual phasing out of the Tour Operator Support Scheme (TOSS) which provided assistance (considered as ‘State Aid’) to package tours sold by UK operators.
