High ranking Maltese CEOs in Brussels

The Malta Business Bureau (MBB) – the joint Malta Chamber of Commerce (COC) and Malta Federation of Industry (FOI) office, recently organised a familiarisation visit to Brussels for a number of top CEOs. The delegation was led by Mr. Reginald Fava, President of the COC and Mr. Joe Zammit Tabona, President of the FOI. The programme of the visit was coordinated by Dr. Leonard Mizzi, Director of the MBB Brussels office and Mr. Simon Lee Barberi EU Affairs Co-ordinator at the MBB office in Malta.

The delegation had a very intensive three day programme, including meetings with both the Maltese Ambassador to Brussels (Mr. Victor Camilleri), as well as high ranking Commission, Council, Parliament (including Ursula Stenzel and Graham Watson – both MEPs) and Economic and Social Committee officials (including Kenneth Walker and Paolo Braghins). The main aim of these meetings was to brief local participants on the workings of the European Union whilst concurrently overviewing the progress of EU-Malta negotiations to date and the issues still open for discussion. The main points in these meetings were thus the chapters which are still open and which somehow affect business and industry in Malta including competition policy, taxation, agriculture, customs union and the environment.

The delegation also took the opportunity to meet the respective Director Generals of their pan-European organisations, namely UNICE for the FOI (Mr. Philippe de Buck) and EUROCHAMBRES for the COC (Mr. Arnaldo Abruzzini). Moreover, the group was also present for both a policy debriefing given by Guenther Verheugen organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC) and a discussion on the business implications of enlargement organised the "Friends of Europe" think tank.

These visits are useful as they enable the local business community to better understand the environment in which their European counterparts operate in. On the other hand the European and Embassy officials whom the delegation met appreciated the opportunity of listening to the views of local entrepreneurs on various specialised subjects.

The MBB has organised a number of such visits for members of the commercial and industrial community since its inception in 1996.