Malta has implemented the Services Directive 2006/123/EC through the enactment of the Services (Internal Market) Act (Act 23 of 2009). This implementing act is a horizontal type act in terms of which various other pieces of legislation were amended and the provisions of the Directive were formally implemented and incorporated into Maltese national law.
The Act establishes general provisions facilitating the exercise of freedom of establishment for service providers and the free movement of services in the internal market. It also caters for the removal of legal and administrative barriers to trade in the certain sectors. The Act excludes certain service sectors from its scope – as does the Directive – such as financial services, electronic communication services and networks, transport, gaming and private security services, amongst others.
The implementation of the Directive presupposed the screening of various laws by the Government of Malta to identify any authorisation or licensing schemes in the areas to which the Directive (and the Act) applies. The main amendments focused on Commercial Code, the accountancy profession act, the engineering profession act and the Trading Licences Act amongst others.
It is particularly interesting to note the amendments to the regulation and licensing of Commercial agents in Malta. In a nutshell, the new Act facilitates the licensing requirements and obligations in the Commercial Code of Malta for Commercial Agents that wish to commence operations in Malta and provides that 'any person desiring to act as a commercial agent, whether alone or in partnership with another person shall notify the regulatory authority requesting registration within 30 days of undertaking this activity". Formerly, the act required commercial agents to obtain the licence before they could commence operations.
The main thrust of the legislation is to ensure that authorities in Malta do not make access to specifically defined service activities subject to restrictions such as nationality and conditions of reciprocity with other Member States in which that service provider is located. Essentially, the amendments remove the need for an ex-ante licence before service provider may start to operate. This has now been replaced by a notification system to competent authorities in terms of which the commencement of a service activity should not require any other approvals such as those related to the facilities required on the premises or other conditions meant to safeguard public health.
The Directive also requires Member States to set up 'points of single contact' in terms of which any service provider wishing to become established or commence operations in another Member State may find all the necessary application forms, authorisation forms and other related information at such single point of contact for each Member States. The Act also establishes that the Minister responsible for the economy may make regulations for the establishment of a Maltese point of single contact although to date no regulations have been adopted in this regard.
The Government has adopted a practical approach to ensure full implementation of the Directive. It is currently utalising its e-government web portal for all the necessary downloadable application forms linked to the various business authorisation schemes required by local legislation. It is understood that Government will shortly implement a point of single contact webportal which will allow the direct submission of all licence applications and authorisation types.
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