Mr President, this is already the second report on Malta which I have had the honour of tabling. The European Parliament without doubt views the accession process of Malta, this small Mediterranean island at the interface between the European Union and Africa, positively and is supporting it constructively. The report is, on the one hand, guided by the Copenhagen criteria, which apply equally to all of the accession countries, and on the other hand, it examines Malta's special characteristics, which result from its island position and from its economic and social structure. Malta's basic political situation is, of course, unchanged. Malta is continuing to fulfil the Copenhagen political criteria. Its institutions are democratic and function smoothly. There are no particular problems as regards human rights. The overall situation as far as economic, social and cultural rights are concerned is satisfactory. In terms of the economy, Malta is a functioning market economy and is in a position to withstand competition from the EU in the medium term, provided that it carries out the structural reforms that are still pending. Malta is doing well in this field, with regard both to phasing out import levies on finished products by 2003 and abolishing the remaining capital controls by the end of 2002. The far-reaching privatisation programme which was adopted in 1999, and which includes plans to privatise major utilities over the next five years, is also heading in the right direction. The reduction of the budget deficit from 11.8% of GDP in 1998 to 5% this year is a positive and significant result, as are the positive developments in the economic data. Despite oil prices, inflation stood at 2.4% in November 2000 and, after rising slightly in 1999, the unemployment rate fell to 5.3% of those capable of gainful employment. It should be borne in mind, however, that this positive process needs to be consolidated by a further cut in structural expenditure. The favourable progress that Malta has made towards joining the EU is also reflected in the stage that it has reached in the accession negotiations. With 17 chapters, Malta heads the list of those candidates which were able to open negotiations only in 2000. This shows that Malta has made up the time lost through the 22-month suspension of negotiations and is therefore well placed to be in the first round of new Member States. As far as Malta's general political situation is concerned, namely the different positions of the government on EU accession on the one hand, and the opposition on the other, not only has nothing changed but the views of the government and the Labour opposition have if anything become more polarised. As rapporteur, I can only note this with regret. Of course this does not mean that the European Parliament should ignore the position of the Labour Party, which would like Malta to follow in Switzerland's footsteps. Nonetheless, we must do all we can to safeguard the continuity of Malta's accession process and therefore to support a constructive dialogue with all its constitutive entities and at every level of its society. The matters of particular concern to the European Parliament in relation to Malta's accession process, of course, include issues related to internal security and maritime safety. As far as internal security is concerned, Malta has now set out an effective policy to combat corruption and money laundering, which will allow Malta both to accede to the Council of Europe's Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and to ratify the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and thus to respond to a short-term priority of the Accession Partnership. In the environmental field too, we endorse Malta's efforts to support short-term priorities of the Accession Partnership to maintain clean air and water and to stem rising levels of waste, and are thus sympathetic towards Malta's policy to ban the use of plastic bottles. In my capacity as rapporteur I also showed sympathy for Malta's specific concerns about the free movement of persons and its fears of there being an influx of foreign workers onto its labour market. The Commission's concession on the free movement of persons takes account of this rather psychologically conditioned fear. Malta is not a country in transition. It has repeatedly referred to the fact that it should like to be treated on the same footing as the other accession countries. The Commission's efforts to make sources of funding available here so as to make up for this shortcoming are to be welcomed. On the other hand, the Maltese authorities need to make the necessary preparations to enable structural and regional aid to be administered on a decentralised basis. I should just like to turn briefly to the Council. Malta's position on the agricultural chapter should, I hope, also soon be on the table. (The President cut the speaker off)

Political group: PPE-DE