An “urgent” Bill moved in February to reform the way members of the judiciary are appointed has yet to be debated in Parliament but no target dates have been set, the Times of Malta is informed.
It was Justice Minister Owen Bonnici who had described the Bill as ‘urgent’ when he presented it in Parliament. However, sources close to the House of Representatives noted that, although it still featured on the agenda, there was no date when the debate will resume.
Asked why the debate on the Bill did not continue despite the fact that he himself deemed it an urgent matter, Dr Bonnici reiterated that the government still had an interest in implementing the constitutional reforms proposed in the draft law. “The Bill has not been parked or put on the backburner,” Dr Bonnici insisted. “It is just a matter arising out of the fact that the implementation of the Bill requires a negotiation process and, in the meantime, the government has to continue with its work and to cope with a number of other issues as they arose.”
Still, he insisted the Bill was “one of our priorities”.
Dr Bonnici was asked whether the government could be dragging its feet on the Bill so it could make more appointments under the old system. “The government has no time to drag its feet and is, in fact, carrying out the reforms which were never introduced in the last 25 years of Nationalist administrations,” he said.
When pressed, the minister gave no tentative date when Parliament was expected to resume the debate on the Bill.
Members of the Opposition told this newspaper what Dr Bonnici was saying was not backed by facts.
“I was only called once by Dr Bonnici to discuss the Bill and this prior to its presentation,” shadow justice minster Jason Azzopardi said. “I can’t understand what Dr Bonnici is saying because he has never called us for any consultations,” he added.
The support of the Opposition would be necessary since the Bill includes constitutional changes that would require a two-thirds majority of the House to go through. It proposes a new judiciary appointment system
At present, it is the Justice Minister who selects potential candidates. The system has been criticised for years and successive government have failed to change it despite promises to do so.
The Bill was harshly criticised by two senior members of the Justice Reform Commission who accused the government of not following their recommendations.
Giovanni Bonello, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights who headed a justice reform commission that submitted proposals to the government in 2013, labelled the Bill as “fake, autocratic and unconstitutional”.
The dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, Kevin Aquilina, who was a member of the Bonello Commission, also agreed.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com