In March of last year, it was reported in this newspaper that Malta had been taken to court over service pensions on grounds that the country’s legislation does not conform to European Union social security rules.

Was there any progress regarding this issue? Or does the European Court face the same problems as our justice system, which moves at a snail’s pace?

Justice delayed is equal to justice denied, especially when it involves pensioners.

To clarify what I am writing about, we ex-serviceman were denied our full national insurance pension for a number of years although we paid the full contribution during our working life.

During the last administration, this anomaly started to be addressed with hiccups, by giving something back nearly every Budget. Unfortunately, it was forgotten in the last Budget and it has never been mentioned again.

In the European Court case it was argued that we have a right to that money and it should be paid back to us in arrears.

It would be interesting to know what does the present administration think about this anomaly.

It would also be interesting to know the views of our European Parliament candidates. As far as I know, our MEPs have never uttered a single word about it.