The European Union College of Commissioners has closed another two infringement proceedings against Malta.
The first infringement was opened in November 2010, after the European Commission claimed that Malta failed to apply regulations with regards to persons receiving a Maltese statutory social security pension and a civil service pension from another EU member state.
However, subsequent to arguments put forward by Malta, the European Court of Justice dismissed the Commission’s action entirely and closed the infringement procedure since there was no breach of EU rules as was initially claimed by the Commission.
The less infringements we have, and the more we satisfactorily close, the higher will be our citizens’ faith in the European project
The second infringement opened last October related to the implementation of directives on driving examiners. The Commission opened this infringement following an examination of the transposition measures and inquired how the Maltese authorities ensure quality and arrange periodic training arrangements.
The Maltese authorities provided the Commission with an updated training programme, the official tests that driving examiners undertake, together with quality assurance and periodic training arrangements. The European Commission was satisfied with the measures undertaken by Malta and thereby closed the infringement.
This brings the total of infringements closed against Malta this year to nine.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that, according to the latest Commission’s 'Monitoring the Application of Union Law - 2014 Report' – Malta had the second highest resolution rate of EU Pilot (88%), and the fifth best response time together with Denmark and Hungary (65 days).
Malta had 16 new infringements opened against it (fourth across the EU), the third best number of open infringements cases (18 cases), and the lowest number of late transpositions of EU Directives (5 cases).
Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech said: "The less infringements we have, and the more we satisfactorily close, the higher will be our citizens’ faith in the European project."