EUROPEAN DOCUMENTATION CENTRE
hosted by
The Institute for European Studies
University of Malta
Msida MSD 2080 – Malta
Tel: (356) 2340 3386
Fax: (356) 2133 7624
Website: http://www.um.edu.mt/europeanstudies/edc
Email: edc@um.edu.mt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/edc.malta
THE ROLE OF THE EU IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
12.03.2015
European Documentation Centre, Institute for European Studies
The Institute for European Studies organised a half-day seminar on 12 March 2015
entitled ‘The Role of the EU in the Western Balkans’ This event was organised with the
support of the European Commission’s DG NEAR, and took place in the European
Documentation Centre, which is located inside the Institute for European Studies, at the
University of Malta. The panel was composed of Ms Natalija Sandić, from the Innovation
Fund Serbia, Professor Roderick Pace, from the Institute for European Studies, and Mr
Joe Tanti, from the Malta Business Bureau. The logistics of the event were handled by
Ms Daniela Callus from the European Documentation Centre, and with the kind help of
Media Consulta, and particularly Ms Emma Tipping.
Professor Roderick Pace, Director of the
Institute
for
European
Studies,
introduced the seminar and explained
the significance of the event, which was
designed
to
create
a
better
understanding of the EU’s enlargement
challenge in the Western Balkans. He
stressed that once the EU emerges
from one of the greatest economic
crises in its history, there are diverse,
and certainly more exciting, initiatives
awaiting it, such as enlargement. He
explained that throughout the seminar,
the audience would be acquainted with the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession
Assistance (IPA), which provides financial and material support for the candidate
countries and potential candidate countries and helps them to fulfil the requirements for
accession in the EU by supporting them in five main sectors, namely the public
administration reform, rule of law (justice and home affairs), economic development,
transport, energy and environment, social development and inclusion, and agriculture
and rural development. This presentation was delivered by Ms Natalija Sandić, Senior
Associate of the Innovation Fund Serbia, who spoke about IPA in the Balkans and
successful achievements of the Innovation Fund Serbia. Ms Sandić spoke of the
objectives of IPA II and explained the budgetary allocations given to each of the
candidate countries. She explained Serbia’s experience in IPA II and outlined the grants
program Serbia is benefitting from, looking at the way forward for Serbia.
The second part of the
seminar dealt with
Malta’s EU accession
experience,
lessons
from which can be
useful to the Balkan
countries
as
they
prepare to take on the
important challenge of
enlargement. In this
respect,
Professor
Roderick Pace, the
second
speaker,
shared his reflections
on Malta’s EU membership experience, speaking of the profound changes that Maltese
society and economy have undergone in the last decade – some directly linked to
Europeanization, whilst others were caused by the process of globalization. He spoke of
the origins of Malta’s pre-accession experience, beginning in 1993 soon after the
publication of the European Commission’s opinion on the membership application, with
the national economic and political reforms accelerating after 1999. Looking from the
vantage point of a decade of EU membership, Professor Pace outlined that it is easier to
appreciate the effect of these reforms now, rather than when they were originally being
implemented. One observation which potential EU member countries might find useful
is, in fact, that the higher the number of reforms carried out in the pre-accession phase,
the lesser the ‘adjustment pains’ will be following accession. In his presentation, he also
stated that the limitations of the national reforms before accession require decisive
political leadership, patience and can be made easier by keeping the public informed
and involved throughout the whole process. Post-accession, Professor Pace mentioned
other changes which Malta went through, such as the new dynamic in Maltese national
politics which came about as a result of European Parliament elections, and the new
rights given to citizens as a result of the adoption of environmental, health and safety
standards and consumer rights. For the candidate countries EU membership does not
automatically mean that everything will fall into place once they join, but it is important
to keep working by making use of the advantages gained through membership – life
does not stop with membership, it is merely the starting point.
Mr Joe Tanti, CEO of the
Malta
Business
Bureau,
spoke of the challenges and
opportunities for Maltese
business arising from Malta’s
EU Membership. In the preaccession period, Maltese
economies were becoming
stagnated
and
tourism
indicators fell enormously
with
poor
market
surveillance
and
quality
control and low economies
of scale. It was generally believed that the Maltese industry would stand to gain from an
expanded market. Mr Tanti spoke of the fears faced by Maltese businessmen in the preaccession phase, most notably the idea that EU products would be favoured over local
products in local market. The post-accession phase for Malta has seen growing
opportunities and support from the EU with Malta’s GDP per capita now at c. 86% of EU
average, exports and imports at 94% of GDP. Mr Tanti outlined two important successes
in the first decade of EU membership namely that tourism is constantly increasing
annually, and that the EU is now Malta’s largest trading partner. Mr Tanti focused part of
his presentation on the benefits Malta has gained from the Single Market: these include
upgrading of operations which has led to significant improvement across the product
market; market access benefits; a change in mentality, where internationalization is a
successful approach to combat cost-based competition; increased credibility of Maltese
businesses in the EU; and improvement in procurement practices and infrastructure
development. Mr Tanti spoke of the funding opportunities for businesses which arose
from EU membership, namely indirect funds, direct funds, increased access to credit
through EIF/EIB schemes and participation in initiatives of business opportunities.
Looking towards the future, Mr Tanti spoke optimistically about the creation of a single
digital market, exploiting the EU’s comparative advantage in green-and-knowledgebased markets, harmonisation of administrative port procedures and documentation,
streamlining labour mobility, incentivising business clusters and increased access to
finance.
The seminar
ended with an
informal
discussion in
the form of a
question and
answer
session.
Questions
from the floor
referred to the
budgetary
allocations of
IPA II and the
sectors
making most
benefit from
the instrument, the way Maltese businesses are dealing with competition from new nonMaltese businesses opening in Malta, the issue of travel costs in Malta, Malta’s
manufacturing firms, and the effectiveness vs efficiency of IPA II, amongst others.
At the end of the Q&A session, the speakers and participants were invited to a
networking stand-up lunch in the KSU Common room, which was kindly sponsored by
the European Commission’s DG NEAR.