Malta's prosecutors have made 12 requests for assistance through the EU's judicial network Eurojust this year and other countries have asked for their help 29 times, according to statistics.
While the figures may seem low at first glance, Eurojust president José Luis Lopes da Mota noted that, given Malta's size and population, the rate was similar to that of other EU countries.
"Eurojust is still a young EU body, having been set up in 2002," he said as he pointed out that prosecutors throughout the bloc needed to better understand how to maximise resources and facilities.
Mr Lopes da Mota, who is also the national member for Portugal, was in Malta last week to attend a seminar aimed at helping prosecutors understand how the system worked in order to ensure they made more use of its services.
During the seminar, various speakers outlined Eurojust's role in combating crime by bringing together competent authorities within member states when they were dealing with the investigation and prosecution of serious cross-border and organised crime.
In line with a pattern seen throughout the EU, the offences dealt with by Malta through Eurojust mainly constituted of crimes against property, such as theft, followed by fraud and money laundering, crime against life, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
Mr Lopes da Mota pointed out that, in the past four years, Malta made 27 requests through Eurojust, mainly to Italy and the UK. On the other hand, Malta's help was requested 84 times during the same period and originated almost equally from Austria, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Italy.
As he stressed the need for national authorities to make more use of Eurojust's services, he pointed out a recent important decision.
Earlier this year, EU justice ministers in the Justice and Home Affairs Council agreed to strengthen Eurojust by creating a common minimum basis of national members' powers, among other things. Some of these powers should be granted to a national member for urgent cases when it was not possible to identify or contact the competent national authority in a timely manner.
The Eurojust College, that meets at the Hague, is composed of a national member from each member state. These are senior, experienced prosecutors or judges. The national member for Malta, Senior Council for the Republic Donatella Frendo Dimech, also addressed the seminar. In agreement with Mr Lopes da Mota, she noted that "national authorities need to understand how Eurojust can help them combat crime, in particular terrorism, human trafficking and drug trafficking".