19 laws being aligned to EU acquis

The House of Representatives yesterday started to debate a bill which at one go amends 19 laws in line with EU requirements.

Among other areas, the bill gives legal form to the agreement reached with the EU on the purchase of property by foreigners. It practically repeals the Exchange Control Act and the Supplies and Services Act and also amends the law on patents in areas such as the ethical issues of biotechnology in view of developments including cloning.

Moving the bill, Finance and Economic Services Minister John Dalli said that in terms of the amendments to the Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, foreigners would not be able to buy more than one property here except in designated areas. EU nationals would be able to buy a second property only if resident in Malta for at least five years. Property purchases by foreigners had to be officially authorised.

Maltese emigrants would not lose any right to buy whatever property they wished as long as they would have lived in Malta for at least five years. Migrants' children born abroad would also have to live here for five years before being able to buy a second property here.

Mr Dalli said the threshold on the value of properties which may be bought by foreigners would be retained and may be adjusted by the government. The government may also ban foreigners from buying property deemed to be historic.

A foreigner bequeathed property in Malta would not be denied that property.

Mr Dalli said the bill amended the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Act with regard to hallmarking. Manufacturers may henceforth hallmark their own products. Inspectors, however, may randomly check such products to ensure that they were of the quality for which they were marked. Those manufacturers who wished to retain the present system of having products hallmarked by the consul would still be able to do so.

The bill amended the Excise Duties Bill to give greater powers to Customs officers to ensure that there were no abuses. That even included the powers to search and hold persons suspected of evading excise duties.

The Commercial Agents Act was being amended so that Maltese agents, in the context of EU membership, would have greater rights with regard to foreign owners. They would also have greater protection against termination of contract without notice or compensation.

The laws on patents, trade marks and copyright were being strengthened to afford greater protection for inventors and their intellectual property, not least because of abuse in the use of the internet. The changes to the patents law included greater detail in the biotechnological sector in view of ethical concerns, such as cloning, as well as commercialisation of plant propagation material.

The bill also practically repealed the Exchange Control Act. Exchange control had been gradually reduced over the years. Upon EU membership the exchange control law would be removed but measures of exchange control may be introduced by the government on the advice of the Central Bank because of particular circumstances such as pressure on the currency or factors which could cause instability in the monetary system. The Central Bank would continue to have a right to collate information, which would be covered by confidentiality.

Another law being amended was the Transport Clearance and Transport Act. The bill would recognise that Malta had enough cargo clearance and forwarding agents. The bill introduced new definitions to ensure that operators in this sector had a specific permit from Customs.

This bill would ensure there would be no inundation of people who thought they would work as cargo forwarders. Although customs clearance on EU products would no longer be required after May 1, information would continue to be collected for statistical purposes.

The Supplies and Services Act, which gave the government draconian powers in areas such as price orders, was being amended extensively to the point that it was being practically repealed. The government, however, would be able to take drastic action in case of emergencies to protect consumers as in the case of acute shortages of particular products.

The government may issue temporary price orders to stabilise the situation when problems arose.

Mr Dalli said experience had shown that the price orders system had not worked, with many ways being found around the system. The government would continue to guard against abuse but his view was that the best way of control was through competition.

Mr Evarist Bartolo (MLP) said that a bill such as this allowed little elbow room to parliament as existing EU legislation was being taken on board without change. In the near future, however, EU legislation would come before parliament in draft form and the House should therefore be equipped to give its input in a way which would influence EU law-making. Parliament could not become a rubber stamp of EU laws and it was important that MPs had the necessary expert support so that they could know how draft EU legislation could impact on Malta.

Referring to various aspects of the bill, Mr Bartolo asked if the changes to the Commercial Agents Act catered for cases where foreign representatives came to Malta to take orders without involving local commercial agents.

Would there be a limit on trade licences?

Turning to the amendments to the Supplies and Services Act, Mr Bartolo asked what new rights were being given to consumers.

Was it true that because of these amendments, private and parastatal companies would have the same status at law so that the latter would not continue to enjoy certain immunities and protection?

What changes were implied by the amendments to the Cargo Clearance and Transport Act? The EU monitoring report had said that Malta should adopt a system of competitive recruitment of cargo clearance and forwarding agents (burdnara). His question was how such new agents would be recruited?

The bill also amended the Civil Aviation Act. In terms of the EU, all airlines wishing to operate to Malta would be able to do so. What impact would this have on Air Malta?

Turning to changes to the Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, Mr Bartolo noted that the derogation given to Malta applied to individuals but not to companies. What impact would this have on the property market, not least in view of the recent surge in property prices?

The areas where no limit was imposed on the purchase of property henceforth would also include Fort Chambray. What stage had this project reached in view of the problems it had run into with MEPA?

Turning to the amendment to the Tobacco (Smoking Control) Act, Mr Bartolo observed that tobacco sponsorship of sport would henceforth be stopped. The age limit of people who could smoke was being raised from 16 to 18 years, but he feared, the immediate impact of this change was that more people would break the law. It was important that laws were properly enforced and more measures were taken to discourage smoking, drinking and drug abuse.

The bill was also amending the Banking Act to recognise the use of electronic transactions since the use of such transactions was expected to grow.

Mr Bartolo observed that Customs officers were being given police powers as part of the amendments to the Excise Duty Act and one had to see how such changes would be introduced.

The latest EU monitoring report said that it was not satisfied with the controls that were being exercised by the Maltese authorities on copyright infringement and it advocated better enforcement and training of customs personnel, the police and the judiciary. There needed to be more cooperation between the three sectors, it said.

On trademarks, the EU had observed that Malta still had to adhere to the world intellectual property organisation and become a member of the European Patent Convention. What would be the impact of such measures?

It would be interesting to see how the Chamber of Commerce, the regulatory body in issuing licences to commission agents would react to parallel trading, to which it objected. Under what criteria would such licences be issued? And at what price?

What would be the government's position to foreign representatives coming over to Malta during specialised fairs to take direct orders, thus by-passing the commission agents?

Parliamentary secretary Edwin Vassallo said the proposed legislation on fairs already indicated that whoever participated in fairs should have a trading licence. Serious companies would not resort to such tactics.

Notary Charles Mangion (MLP) said the Supplies and Services Act was enacted to prevent any monopolistic body from manipulating the market without the government being able to act. Last year, one of the main banks had hiked the price of its services and the regulator was asked to see whether these prices were justified. To date, the regulator has not published his report but the increases were still being charged to consumers.

The amendment to the act said consumers had the right to purchase adequate and resonable quantities of any goods and services that were available on the market. At the same time, he remarked, the amendment said that these provisions should not be directly enforceable in any court or tribunal.

Thus, in a monopolistic situation, the consumer was not gaining anything because an aggrieved person could not take steps against the entity providing the goods or service. Policywise, one must be careful not to introduce such saving clauses. The government must explain why this amendment was being moved.

On the removal of the price order mechanisim, Dr Mangion said that price orders had been practically phased-out already because they were no longer needed.

However, the government must not act in a way that would prevent it from taking action if a situation arose where prices had to be regulated because of a monopolistic positon of some enterprise.

If, for example, flour mills stopped flour distribution, would the government still be in a position to take drastic action in such an emergency?

The amendments also gave the authorities the power to take over the running and management of the whole or part of an undertaking. He said that one must look into the implications of such moves and how these impinged on the constitutional rights of the undertaking.

Turning to civil aviation, Dr Mangion said that the amendment cleared the way for the privatisation of Air Malta.