Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this afternoon kept up the pressure on the justice system, saying he did not want to face the people five years from now without any improvement in the law courts.

Speaking in Brussels, he said it was an "advantage" that the EU listed the justice system in Malta's country specific recommendations approved at this week's EU summit because this showed the problem was not just an issue of perception.

He said those who got used to the system were resistant to change, but the citizens never got used to the system and demanded a new approach.

Dr Muscat added that recent studies had shown how much time vacation leave was taken for people to attend court and this did not include those who were self-employed.

"This all comes at a cost to the economy," he said, adding that a similar study should eventually be carried out into the cost of traffic.

Asked how he planned to make the court system more efficient, Dr Muscat said: "I believe in motivation rather than punitive measures."

As an example of how this could be done, he said the Government was exploring ways of making it easier for people to redeem the ground rent on their properties due to an "enormous backlog" caused mostly by bureaucracy.

Dr Muscat said the Government was being deprived of an important revenue stream because of working practices within the department that processes these requests.

"These people want to give the Government money," he stressed.

Dr Muscat said he was looking into ways of creating incentives, including financial ones, for people in the sector to voluntarily work faster and adopt better work practices.

On the second day of the EU summit, which discussed European economic and monetary union, Dr Muscat said Malta was pushing for a "common sense" approach to the discussion on whether to adopt more centralisation.

While there had to be common standards, rules and leadership in the EU, Dr Muscat said, countries could not all be placed in a straitjacket.

"We are open to scrutiny. We are open to taking recommendations. But we are not open to taking direction," he said, stressing that budgets should be decided by the elected governments of each country.