With less than six months to go before the euro will replace the lira as Malta’s legal tender, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin have reached an agreement that will ensure, as much as possible, that abuse is curbed and that consumers are protected as much as possible.

The two entities signed an anti-abuse protocol that is aimed to increase consumers’ confidence once Malta converts to the euro on 1 January.

Over the past two years or so, Malta has been actively gearing up towards such a changeover, and nobody can deny that the government has, through the National Euro Changeover Committee, laid out its plans in great detail, earning praise from the European Commission in this regard, and serving as an example to other countries, such as Cyprus, which are also on their way to switch currency.

Of course, there were initial hitches that needed to be sorted out, but once everything was put in place and the ball started rolling, all the stakeholders involved showed great cooperation with the government and the NECC. This has formed a solid basis on which the currency change – that will effectively mean a great change to our way of thinking money – will take place.

The FAIR initiative, through which the NECC acknowledged that shops and service providers were giving their customers the “right deal” – in the sense that the equivalent of the Maltese lira in euro on the price tag was according to the established rate, even though the transaction was still being carried out in Maltese liri – was highly successful too.

This has enabled Maltese consumers to get used to the euro long before they will start to use it, and this will go a long way to make the real transition to the new currency much easier.

Naturally, we will know whether all the preparations that have been put in place have been successful or otherwise when the real thing starts next year, but at this stage it must be said that no stone is being left unturned to give as much information and as much support to the public – businessmen and consumers – as euro day approaches.

The signing of the anti-abuse protocol late last month was another step in this direction. What will happen is that in the coming weeks, some 200 so-called mystery shoppers will be buying products or using services. The prices will be monitored and, if the UHM finds an unusual increase in the price that cannot be explained, a complaint will be registered with a committee that is made up of representatives from the UHM and the GRTU, and chaired by a government representative.

With this mechanism in place, it will be ensured that the changeover to the euro will not result in additional inflation, or abuse to the detriment of consumers. The UHM will be monitoring prices until the euro changeover takes place, and such a system will enable more transparency as well as add to consumer confidence.

If the system works correctly, and any abuse is reported and rectified, consumers will be more confident that they are not being cheated, and this will ensure that there will be a much smoother transition to the new currency. The UHM therefore has great responsibility in this respect, because through this exercise, it needs to put consumers’ minds at rest that the switch to the euro will not result in extra expenses.

One would have expected that reports on the exercise that is taking place would have been issued more frequently. To have one every two months means that we will only have three before the euro takes over from the lira, and at such a delicate stage in the changeover process, more reports, perhaps one every month, would have been better.