GRTU to allow members take own decisions on EU

The Association of General Retailers and Traders would not be issuing directives to its members on the EU membership referendum, the GRTU's 54th annual general meeting decided yesterday.

The GRTU would not be expressing its opinion on membership but would be leaving it up to its individual members to decide what was best for them on the matter.

A proposal in that sense by the executive council was approved at the AGM, during which director general Vince Farrugia said the GRTU was extending its services to ensure its members would be in a position to analyse membership.

The GRTU considered the issue to be highly important for Malta and, in particular, for Maltese businessmen.

GRTU president Charles Busuttil spoke on the major problems the economy was facing, problems he said had to be solved by the Maltese alone and not by the EU, or anybody else.

Mr Busuttil augured that the EU issue would be decided and appealed to political parties to accept the country's verdict so that the country could concentrate on solving the economic problems.

The GRTU believed in more incentives and more support for small businesses, which were the backbone of Malta's economy.

"So far, there has been lots of talk but no real support," Mr Busuttil said, adding that the Finance Ministry had continued to promote its "wrong policy of squeezing the private sector".