14 - 20 September 2000

Lm7.5m needed to implement the 'acquis'

by Ivan Brincat

The government will have to spend between Lm7.5m and Lm10m in administrative costs to implement EU rules over the next two years, sources told The Malta Business Weekly. The amount applies to those chapters that have already been opened.

The National Plan for the Adoption of the Acquis, which is being tabled in Parliament next Monday when sittings resume following the summer recess, is expected to include the administrative costs to implement the acquis.

The updated NPAA is expected to be discussed in Parliament later this month although no date has been set. Sources said the NPAA will include a financial assessment of the costs the government will face over a three-year period for the 17 chapters that have already been opened. Seven were closed in June.

The acquis has to be implemented within the already existing Maltese legislation and an appropriate administrative and legal infrastructure has to be set up.

The first draft copy of the NPAA was published in February and the Opposition had criticised the government because its contents were never discussed in Parliament. The government, however, had insisted that discussions would be held when the final copy was tabled in the House.

Following the publication of the NPAA, the government held a series of meetings with the constituted bodies to gather feedback. Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Borg said the government would analyse their comments and the necessary amendments to the NPAA would be made.

The NPAA had been divided in two sections, Stream A and Stream B. The Stream A chapters were those in which there was nothing to negotiate, or else areas that had to be negotiated but the government knew what had to be done. Stream B included those areas where the government was uncertain.

The new version of the NPAA should include the outcome of a number of studies that were commissioned on various chapters that have to be negotiated. The final NPAA now includes the Institution Building requirements and the financial requirements to adopt the Acquis.

Earlier this year, Malta had signed an agreement to use 1.6 million Euros for adminstrative and technical assistance under the fourth financial protocol. The pre-accession funds for Malta for this year are six million Euro.

In February, Dr Borg said he believed that the funds allocated for 2000-2004 to take part in programmes and for technical and administrative assistance should be suitable to cover the costs of adopting the NPAA.