Dr Spiteri Bailey committed himself to keeping constant contact with all those interested in SMEs in Malta; to reduce as much as possible any negative impact on Maltese SMEs; to ensure that more help is given to this sector and to push the culture of conducting impact assessments on anything that will likely impact on SMEs.

GRTU director general, Vince Farrugia said GRTU is satisfied that there are candidates who have SMEs at heart. He warned however that GRTU has outstanding issues on matters which are impacting negatively on SMEs and said that if no solution is found, there will be problems and trouble.

These are:

• Data Protection: The law states that who collects data on employees or clients because he is forced to do so by the law, is exempt. This means that SMEs should not have to register and pay their licence.

• Smoking ban: The government had come to an agreement with the GRTU that bars and small outlets will be exempt, as long as they fit adequate extractors. But, he claimed, the Minister of Health has now changed everything again.

• Audit exemption: The government had promised to exempt small businesses from annual auditing. According to EU legislation, SME can now just do a simple declaration. But government has not implemented this commitment.

• Help for SMEs: The government had promised help for SMEs but nothing has happened so far, according to Mr Farrugia.

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