Malta’s democracy has been described as “stagnating”, with last year seeing no progress on a range of democratic indicators, according to a recent report.
Efforts to improve and safeguard the justice system, checks and balances, the media environment and human rights all faltered last year, according to the Liberties Rule of Law Report 2025 from the Civil Liberties Union for Europe Rule of Law.
Work to promote civic space and tackle corruption also saw little to no progress, the report found.
Malta was among five countries that made “only minimal progress in their rule of law indicators” since the preceding year, the report said, while pointing to a “democratic recession” across the EU, which it described as “toothless”.
Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain joined Malta in the rankings as “stagnators”.
The report charged Malta with having “serious problems tackling high-level corruption,” citing “institutional weaknesses and a lack of accountability,” and said the country struggled to regulate lobbying and conflicts of interest.
Alongside eight other countries, Malta grappled with “political manipulation” in judicial appointments and was among five countries notable for “political attacks” against judges, the report found.
Independent authorities “struggle with political interference, resource shortages, and limited influence on government actions” in a handful of countries including Malta, it said.
Meanwhile, threats to the independence of public service media continued and “verbal attacks, threats, targeted smear campaigns and abusive lawsuits against journalists” were also highlighted.
Issues related to “opaque” ownership of media organisations and a lack of media plurality was “especially true” in Malta alongside Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Romania.
Malta’s electoral framework was labelled as “problematic” alongside five other countries due to voters being excluded “based on their nationality or limited mental capacity”.
Some 43 organisations from 21 countries across the EU contributed to the report, with findings on Malta contributed by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.
Justice system
The country report for Malta highlighted “severe delays” in Malta’s justice system and the politicisation of key roles while calling for increased transparency in important judicial processes.
It noted that there had been “no formal steps” towards establishing a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) and “no progress” in involving the judiciary when appointing a chief justice.
While stressing the need for thorough studies and public consultation meant recommendations could not easily be made, the report called for key justice positions to be depoliticised, more regulation of legal workers and the digitisation of the court system.
Anti-corruption framework
Last year, the government continued to delay implementing recommendations from the public inquiry into the assassination of Caruana Galizia, the European Commission Rule of Law Report, the Venice Commission and European Council anti-corruption monitor GRECO, the report said.
It noted there had been no high-level prosecutions linked to corruption.
The report called for anti-corruption recommendations to be implemented, the crime of obstruction of justice to be introduced and legislative provisions to safeguard against improper conduct by public officials.
Media environment
Highlighting “little progress” in media freedom, the report said there were shortcomings in Malta’s transposition of the EU’s Anti-SLAPP directive – designed to protect against vexatious lawsuits, often targeting journalists – and said a lack of access to information continued to be an obstacle.
It recommended repealing a provision in the Media and Defamation Act obliging a defendant’s heirs to pay damages in active inherited cases, reforming the Freedom of Information Act and introducing mechanisms to provide support and protection to journalists.
Checks and balances
While Malta has some checks and balances in place “on paper... many do not enable real action against or accountability for instances of wrongdoing,” the report said, adding no laws dealing with rule of law had been published since 2014.
The report called for the government to immediately suspend the “secretive” reforms to magisterial inquiries, establish an independent body empowered to open public inquiries and extend the Ombudsman’s office to include a national human rights institution.
Civic space
While civic space – including NGOs and activists – became “more vibrant and proactive on environmental issues” since Caruana Galizia’s assassination in 2017, leading to several government resignations in 2019, little information was available to help gauge success, the report said.
“What we do know is that government officials continue to label anti-corruption journalists and activists as enemies of the state. This, in turn, negatively impacts public trust in independent media and civil society.”
The report called for the standards commissioner’s remit to investigate breaches of ethics to be extended to political appointees, singling out Jason Micallef who it said, “continues to attack anti-corruption activists and journalists with complete impunity.”
It said attacks on journalists and activists should be “appropriately penalised”, extending to disciplinary measures and criminal punishment where appropriate.
Democratic recession
Elsewhere across the EU, Estonia and the Czech Republic were rated as “hard workers” showing signs of genuine improvement, while “role-model democracies” Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden were rated “sliders” amid an “isolated but still troubling decline” in some areas.
“Dismantlers” Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia were charged with “systematically and intentionally undermining the rule of law in nearly all aspects” while “weakest link” Hungary, “already the worst performer for years,” showed “significant regression” across the board, the report said.
Poland was rated as a “cautionary tale”, with the report noting that efforts to restore judicial independence and media pluralism had made little major progress, which it said showed how addressing compromised institutions was an “extremely challenging and fragile endeavour.”
“Europe’s democratic recession has deepened in 2024... Countries regarded as democratic strongholds are sliding towards authoritarian tendencies and the European Union’s minimal use of its rule of law toolbox has barely made a dent”, the report said.
Across the bloc, checks and balances were being weakened by emergency “fast-track” laws and justice systems were underfunded and facing growing political pressure, while climate and pro-Palestine protests were “widely restricted”, it said.
Calling the report “the most in-depth ‘shadow reporting’ exercise on the rule of law to date by an independent civil liberties network,” the Civil Liberties Union for Europe Rule of Law said the report fed into a European Commission monitoring cycle on the topic.
Shadow reports are used by NGOs to present alternative or additional information to those presented by governments.