12 The Voice of the Maltese
Tuesday May 7, 2019
Roundup of News About Malta
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat calls for Malta scores high safeguarding the 4 freedoms of the EU in EU Justice eeting at the Together for Europe rope must be a force of openness both insummit in Warsaw on the occa- ternally and within the global context,” Scoreboard sion of the celebration in Warsaw In the event that was organised by Polish
M
of the 15th anniversary since 10 countries – including Malta and Poland –joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said, “Eu-
26,600 youths benefit from free transport
I
n the first three months of this year, more than 26,600 youths and students - aged 14 to 20 and all full-time students 21 and over - have benefitted from the free public transport scheme that Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Ian Borg said was the result of an investment of over €3.3 million. The Minister said in the first three months of this year, there was an increase of 15% in investment which resulted in more than 15% of scheduled public transport trips to be made as part of this scheme. He referred to the record achieved in 2018, when more than 53.4 million passengers used the public transport service, which is an average of almost 150,000 passengers every day when compared to an average of a little more than 90,000 passengers every day in 2011. The figures are bound to improve even further as in the first three months of this year more than 12 million passengers have used public transport.
M
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and attended by the leaders of the 10 countries, Muscat cited the single market as being the biggest achievement of the European project. He warned that there are forces that are trying to tamper with the ‘four freedoms’, the free movement of goods, capital, and services and labour, which are the founding principles of the EU. He said that these are the principles that all EU member states subscribe to, and must work together to sustain. “We must do everything we can to safeguard them,” he said. The Prime Minister called on EU countries to be more understanding of each other. “We are one big family, with members coming from different parts of Europe, with different histories. Whether we joined in 2004, before 2004, or after, we are all Europeans. We are all equal member states. And we are all stronger together,” he said.
alta has welcomed the European Union Commission’s report stating its efficiency in the justice system. It scored highly in the ‘Justice Scoreboard’ just published. In its report, the EU Commission said that the Maltese public has strengthened its belief in the Judiciary in that it is independent, especially compared to previous years’ reports. It further underlines the fact that Maltese companies have also strengthened their belief that the Judiciary is independent. Justice Scoreboard’s report also takes a look at the efficiency of the Judiciary System throughout 2017. It highlights the strengthening of belief in the independence of the system between 2010 and 2017.
igures released both by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and Eurostat show that by registering a surplus of €250.8 million (around $A400 million), equivalent to 2% of GDP, in 2018 Malta made the second highest surplus among the European Union member states.. NSO showed that the major contributor of the surplus is the Extra Budgetary Units
(EBU), which reached €176.8 million, a decrease of €21.1m over 2017. Malta’s surplus has led to a decrease in debt with figures indicating that the debt rate compared to the wealth being generated by the Maltese economy standing at 46%. The lowest rates were measured in Estonia and Luxembourg while the highest were recorded in Greece and Italy.
Malta with second highest surplus in EU
F