Malta is the second best performer in adopting the EU’s directives into its national laws.

The latest EU internal market scoreboard, a twice yearly classification, shows that between May and November of last year, Malta had only one outstanding EU directive to transpose into its law books.

This was the best result achieved by the island since its accession to the EU and second only to Ireland among the 27 member states.

Malta has a mere 0.1 per cent transposition deficit whereas Ireland has managed to transpose all the pending directives.

The overall EU transposition deficit in November stood at 0.6 per cent.

During the same period, the island also managed to reduce its pending infringement cases – for directives incorrectly implemented – to 16, one of the lowest levels in the EU.

The country with the highest infringement cases last November was Italy with 67 followed by Spain (66) and Greece (61).

At the top of that particular league table was Latvia, which had just seven infringement cases pending.

The European Commission said that “Malta has achieved a 0.1 per cent transposition deficit for the fifth consecutive time, consolidating its position as one of the best performers.”

In 2011, EU leaders agreed to permit a transposition deficit of just 0.5 per cent. Malta is one of 13 member states already in line with this threshold.

Welcoming the results, the Government said the latest report confirmed Malta’s deep commitment to the Single Market in view of the beneficial effect of enabling Maltese individuals, consumers and businesses to make the most of the opportunities offered to them by having direct access to 27 countries and 500 million people.