"Flexible" public sector praised

Malta was one of the most advanced countries in adopting EU legislation, the head of the EU delegation, Ronald Gallimore said yesterday.

Speaking during the launch of a twinning agreement on maritime safety, Mr Gallimore said the EU delegation was spending some Lm4 million a year to help the public sector gear itself for membership.

"Twinning is a form of cooperation between member states and candidate countries. It provides expertise to various bodies and the EU does this with all candidate countries," Mr Gallimore said.

The EU delegation has been instrumental in facilitating 23 agreements over the past two-and-a-half years.

The agreement with the Malta Maritime Authority was being backed up by the French government, which was providing two technical experts for a year.

The experts would be helping Maritime Authority staff in various fields.

Mr Gallimore said one often heard the argument that Malta was too small to cope with all EU directives.

"But I can say how satisfied I am with the flexibility being shown by the public sector. It is not easy to transpose all EU laws but there are no major problems for Malta," Mr Gallimore said.