Visas for Libyans may hinder trade between the two countries
Grant Thornton launches 'EU Insight'
by Anthony Manduca
Grant Thornton is launching a new publication for the local market. EU Insight is a bi-monthly publication on EU related topics and is targeted at those businesses and organisations who want to know more about EU matters, the decisions being taken by government in this respect, and how such matters may impact on their particular business.
The publication addresses the opportunities and threats as well as the concerns and problems associated with membership. It eliminates the hype, provides facts and reviews the progress of negotiations.
The aim is to provide the reader with the required information to enable him or her to arrive at an educated decision on the merits or otherwise of EU membership.
Subscribers to EU Insight will be able to make use of a personalised consultation service. This will take the form of a "question and answer" service on the specific topics dealt within the bi-monthly issues, and how these may impact on particular businesses.
In the first edition of EU Insight a number of areas of concern to Maltese businessmen are tackled and discussed. One such issue is the visa requirements for Libyan nationals entering Malta.
EU Insight says that eventual EU membership would mean that EU citizens would be free to enter Malta as they please without any formalities such as passport controls. Similarly, Maltese citizens would be free to enter other member states in the same manner.
As an EU member State, EU Insight says, Malta would have to adopt the Union's policies
vis-à-vis third country nationals. "It is likely that Malta would have to start requiring Libyan nationals to produce a visa to enter the country.
"The probable reaction of the Libyan authorities will be that of requiring a visa for Maltese nationals entering Libya.
"These measures may hinder trade between the two countries, which would have a direct effect on the approximately 500 Maltese nationals working in Libya.
"With membership, Malta would become the EU's new border with North Africa.
"Thus, the Union is expected to give its full assistance to the country to build a more effective immigration control system," it says.
| 
