Malta Business Bureau at Florence meeting

Dr Leonard Mizzi, director of the Malta Business Bureau in Brussels, has just returned from Florence, Italy where he attended the First Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting organised by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute.

Around 130 researchers and academics from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and the United States participated in the event.

The seminar was structured around 10 workshops covering economic and social reform, migration, tourism, youth and investment in the Mediterranean area.

Dr Mizzi actively participated in Workshop No. IV which analysed Trade and Investment Links in the Middle East and North Africa Area: The Potential Role of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreements.

The participants in this technical workshop included Dr Raed Safadi (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris); Prof. Alfred Tovias, Hebrew University, Jerusalem and currently on sabbatical at the London School of Economics; and Prof. Mahomed Lahouel from the University of Tunis III.

Dr Mizzi presented the paper "From Free Trade to EU Membership: the case of Malta".

The paper analyses free trade in Europe and the Mediterranean area, the options for Malta at a sectoral level if Malta proceeds from free trade to EU membership and how to operate successfully in the EU given the commencement of accession negotiations.