Opening Speech by The Hon J. Dalli during a business breakfast marking the Eures 15th Anniversary - St. Julian's

NO. 1744

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to launch this year’s EURES Week with
such a commemorative activity. It is of great satisfaction for me to be here with you
all today, to celebrate a successful 15 years of the EURES Network, and even more so,
knowing that it is also the 5 year anniversary for EURES Malta.

Ahead we have a week packed with EURES activities which will culminate during
the EURES Job Fair which will be held on Friday and Saturday, here at the Radission Blu,
Ball Room.

As a commemoration of this anniversary, I think we should start by going back a few years.
Prior to Malta’s joining the European Union, we know that a number of Maltese were already
living and working in other foreign countries. However, there were a number of others,
who although interested in going to live and work abroad, were unsure of how
to go about it. How were they going to find a job abroad? What vacancies were available?
What was to happen with their pension contributions? What did they
have to do to get a VISA? The situation at that point in time left a lot of these questions unanswered.

Malta’s entry into the European Union however brought with it new mobility possibilities which were
previously not possible. In order to facilitate mobility across EU countries, during its negotiations,
the Maltese Government reached a special agreement for Malta, similar to the agreement for Cyprus.
This agreement brought with it the right for all Maltese Citizens to work in any other country of
the European Union without restriction. This was an agreement which other accession countries,
who also joined the European Union in 2004 together with Malta, did not manage to achieve. In fact,
to date, there are still a number of restrictions with regards to free movement of citizens of certain European Countries.

Therefore it is important for us to acknowledge once again the importance of this special agreement, and the new doors it opened for Maltese citizens from the very first day of our accession.

Long before Malta joined the European Union, the European Commission looked into ways of further aiding the mobility of European Citizens amongst member countries and in 1994 the European Commission created the EURES services.

EURES is a co-operation network between the European Commission and the Public Employment Services of the EEA Member States (The EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and other partner organisations. Switzerland also takes part in EURES co-operation. The joint resources of the EURES member and partner organisations provide a solid basis for the EURES network to offer high quality services for both workers and employers.

The purpose of EURES is to provide information, advice and recruitment/placement (job-matching) services for the benefit of workers and employers as well as any citizen wishing to benefit from the principle of the free movement of persons.

Made up of a human network of more than 700 EURES advisers, EURES ensures that EU countries are in daily contact with jobseeker and employers across Europe.

EURES has an important role to play in providing information about and helping to solve all sorts of problems related to mobility. The main aim behind these services is to provide help to all those interested in moving to another EU country. The services offered by this European Network include the sharing of vacancies amongst European Countries and the provision of information on job opportunities and other relevant information jobseekers should be aware of before taking the plunge to go and work abroad.

In fact, it was the Employment and Training Corporation as the Local Public Employment Service, that joined this network in May of 2004 and included this new service amongst the many other services and responsibilities it already had under its remit.

Over the years, EURES Malta has answered numerous queries of jobseekers and employers. The service provided by EURES is advantageous for both local jobseekers interested in work opportunities abroad and European jobseekers interested in finding a job here in Malta.

These EURES services also offer good recruitment opportunities to local employers by allowing them to promote their vacancies amongst the other member states.

The same as a number of European employers and EURES Advisors will be attending Friday and Saturday’s EURES Malta Job fair, a number of Maltese employers have participated in EURES job fairs held in other Member states. Where they succeeded to recruit employees with skills sets not readily available here in Malta.

As I am informed by the Employment and Training Corporation, and other constituted bodies, and employer associations, there are in fact a number of employers who unfortunately, for one reason or another, do not manage to fill their vacancies locally. We know that the Maltese labour market, is already facing a number of shortages, such as shortages within technical and engineering sectors.

In Malta there are already a number of foreign workers that are working legally after getting an employment licence. In fact, the total number of foreign workers currently working here in Malta with an active permit is 8653. Forty-nine percent (49%) of these (4,325) of these, are European Citizens. It is important for you to note that every foreign worker working here in Malta, including also those workers coming from European countries, require an employment licence which is only issued by the Employment and Training Corporation.

On a finally note, I would like to thank the Employment and Training Corporation for the service is it giving to our fellow citizens. I would also like to encourage our citizens to make use of their right of free movement and make use of the vast opportunities Europe furnished us with on accession.

This is why today we would like to share this information with you who are the main mediums to inform Maltese jobseekers and Employers about the different services ETC offers through its EURES services.

It is once again of great satisfaction for me to be here today to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of EURES.

DOI – 12.10.2009