The worrying results obtained by Malta in the EU Justice scoreboard strengthened the government’s will to implement an effective and timely reform of the sector, the government said.

In a statement this morning, it said that while it was true that some aspects of the Maltese justice system compared well to those of other European countries, the government also believed that the people, democracy and the business and investment sectors deserved a much better and more efficient system which would place the country on the forefront of the EU.

For wealth to be created in Malta there could not be a situation where cases took among the longest to be resolved. Malta could also not afford to have a negative result in the fundamental sector of information availability on monitoring and evaluation of court activities and in the amount of resources the courts were allocated.

Conscious of this reality, the government had already announced the setting up of a Commission for the Review of the Sector to be led by Judge Giovanni Bonello. The timeframes were indicated and the reform would be could be carried out following a wide public consultation. The government was committed to implement the main points of the reform as proposed by the commission by the end of the year, it said.