Malta has over the past two-and-a-half years slashed the number of pending infringement cases against it by half, an EU report issued today shows.

According to the report, between November 2007 and May 2010, Malta resolved 47 per cent of its alleged infringements, cutting down the number of legal challenges started by the EU to just 23.

The only other member state which managed to perform better than Malta during the same period was Finland which reduced its outstanding legal issues with Brussels by 51 per cent.

Malta’s performance is much better than the EU average, with the total number of closed legal disputes during the same period standing at just 11 per cent.

The EU’s legal proceedings are three-pronged. Procedures against member states suspected of infringing EU rules are started by a letter of formal notice followed by a reasoned opinion if the Commission is not satisfied with the member states’ response to its accusations.

If the problem persists, the Commission will normally then move to institute a case in front of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). According to the Commission’s internal report, Malta is currently among the least of its member states with pending infringement procedures. The worst offenders of EU laws in May 2010 were Belgium and Greece with 111 and 84 pending infringement procedures respectively .

The record for the most compliant member state is held by Cyprus with only 13 infringement procedures. The average infringement procedures in the EU last May per member state stood at 48 pending cases, more than double Malta’s outstanding cases.