I never thought it a good idea to spend time mulling over the past and how life leads back to what should have already been done but was not. Still there are times when it is not possible to keep away from noting that issues tend to reappear; and how today’s proposals could have been carried out earlier.
This is how I felt when reading “new” suggestions that are being advanced for Gozo to acquire a regional management structure. This would allow Gozitans to regulate the development of their island; ensure that the executive powers of the national government would still remain in force in Gozo; maintain the set-up of a “ministry” for Gozo; and promote the participation of civil society in regional initiatives.
Between 1996 and 1998, along with others, I had given much thought to such a project. Following wide consultations, we had reached the point where a draft bill for a Gozo regional council was on the runway. Many of the ideas inserted in that bill have now resurfaced. All of them remain meaningful, even if they seem to have been forgotten and are now being rediscovered.
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Labour costs
According to Eurostat, hourly labour costs in Malta during the last two years, including social security contributions, stayed constant in 2015 and 2016. This aspect of our economy has intrigued me for quite some time; indeed, I must have already referred to it in this blog.
How is the Maltese economy succeeding to freeze hourly labour costs? This is hard to explain, especially when economies which are doing much worse than ours are experiencing a rise, sometimes steep, in labour costs. For instance in Greece, with a moribund economy, between 2015 and 2016, labour costs rose by 0.8 percent. In France where economic performance is still weak, the increase stood at 1.5 per cent.
The only reasonable explanation I can see is that though unemployment has been virtually obliterated here, this has basically been happening on the back of precarious employment and the deployment of immigrant workers who get paid low wages.
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Ecofin in Malta
This past weekend, Ecofin – the EU council of finance ministers – was due to meet “informally” in Malta. The paper Le Soir published a story about a report prepared by the Maltese presidency of the EU regarding the impact that new rules in the Union concerning the administration of tax systems could have.
Some MEPs were scandalised. To demonstrate their anger, they might even have written a protest letter to the Maltese finance minister, in the belief that Malta was trying to hamper the struggle against tax evasion.
I managed to secure a copy of the report that was drafted for discussion and hardly saw how it could have seemed so awful. Was that because my point of view in examining the text was too subjective??
The report discusses how various quick changes are being introduced one after the other in European tax frameworks. They could be creating uncertainties and delaying investment projects.
It is a very valid point to make.