Malta: accession to the European Union and progress in negotiations

The European Parliament adopted the text drafted by Mrs Ursula STENZEL (EPP/ED, A) on Malta's application for membership of the European Union. Malta meets the Copenhagen political criteria and, as a functioning market economy, therefore it should be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. The Parliament considers that Malta needs to intensify its efforts to transpose, apply and enforce the Community acquis in the environmental field and considers it particularly essential to draw up a directive-specific financing plan for solving the problems which exist with regard to land use, effluent, air pollution, waste management and nature conservation. Furthermore, the Parliament welcomes, in view of the predominance of SMEs in the Maltese economy and the problems in this field, and in light of the inadequate openness of the economy to date and the lack of competition in some sections of industry, that the setting-up of an Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprises (IPSE) as a step in the right direction in the process of restructuring Maltese economy.�