Malta’s Justice System Well Behind, EU Justice Scoreboard Reveals
Malta’s justice system has once again been spotlighted in the 2023 EU Justice Scoreboard, with notable issues around the duration of case resolutions, despite having one of the smallest caseloads per capita in the EU, with an average of 2.3 non-criminal cases per 100 inhabitants in 2021.
Yet, despite this lower caseload, the country’s judicial proceedings have been marked by extended timelines, raising concerns about efficiency.
In 2021, the estimated duration to conclude civil, commercial, and other non-criminal cases in Malta was approximately 350 days, placing the nation fifth among EU member states.
Although this figure represents a significant decrease from the previous average reported in 2012, it underscores the persistent issue of long court proceedings in Malta.
For litigious civil and commercial cases, the resolution time dropped from 685 days in 2012 to 529 days in 2021, still higher than the 465 days recorded in 2019 and the fourth-highest among 23 member states.
Concerningly, resolving administrative cases at first instance in Malta took an average of over 1,356 days, or about three and a half years, far surpassing the average time needed in any other EU member state.
Despite these concerning statistics, the Justice Ministry of Malta emphasized the improvements recorded, such as the reduction in case resolution times, and attributed the slower performance to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard was quoted as saying that the report demonstrated the “landmark and courageous reforms” of the government were beginning to yield results.
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