‘No intention of doing away with COLA’ - Tonio Fenech tells Ecofin Council

Intervening during yesterday’s Ecofin Council, finance minister Tonio Fenech  stressed that, whilst Malta was not against an improvement of the COLA system, “Government had no intention of doing away with such a system, that is built on dialogue between the social partners and which has contributed substantially to industrial stability.”

This new amended recommendation would entail a review of Malta’s COLA system in order

to establish whether any changes to same are necessary in order to maintain and improve Malta’s competitiveness.

Fenech’s intervention came in the wake of a discussion related to the European Semester Council Recommendations on the integrated guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States and the Union.

These recommendations, which were adopted by the Commission on June 7, include country-specific recommendations in addition to one for the entire EU.

The goal of these recommendations is to contribute to the process of delivering growth, jobs and stable public finances within the entire Union under the European semester architecture that seeks to create greater coordination in the EU’s economic governance policies.