Giant steps in good governance and rule of law have been made in the past 10 months with the government investing even during difficult pandemic times, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said on Thursday.

Speaking during the budget debate on the justice, equality and governance ministry, Zammit Lewis spoke on constitutional reforms, saying that while in 2018, the government had been accused of failing to carry out reforms, following his appointment as Justice Minister last January, these had now been carried out in agreement with the Opposition. 

Zammit Lewis said it was Politico that had stated that Malta was a case of best practice and everyone should be proud of this because even the Opposition had voted for the reforms.

He praised the separation of the Attorney General and the State Advocate and said that next week, applications will be issued for two European delegated prosecutors.

Zammit Lewis said the first group of most serious crimes had been moved from the police to the Attorney General on October 1 and this process has to continue as soon as possible.

Earlier, justice shadow minister Jason Azzopardi called for the ministry to be less arrogant in the administration of justice saying arrogance had taken over competence.

Speaking on court delays, Azzopardi said this had even been criticised by the Council of Europe in its report on Malta.

In civil appeals, while local cases lasted an average of 1,117 days, the European average was 141 days, eight times less. In criminal appeals, the EU average was 104 days against Malta's 534 days.

He called for an amendment to reduce the time by when civil appeals cases should be scheduled to reduce the waiting time.

Azzopardi noted that the global competitiveness index for 2019 had placed Malta in the 38th position from 141 countries, falling back two spots from 2018. Institutions related to justice, however, had fallen behind by more with incidence of corruption moving from 41st to 46th place, independence of the judiciary from the 56th to 65th place and freedom of the press from the 52nd to 62nd position.

He asked if the minister was willing to amend the constitution to ensure no transfers or promotions, new state jobs, infrastructure contracts and building permits once parliament was dissolved ahead of an election.

Azzopardi asked if the government was willing to make obstruction of justice a crime and if it was willing to enact legislation to protect journalists from SLAPP cases.

He asked if it was willing to immediately enact a law to set up an office to investigate allegations of corruption and if it was willing to amend the constitution and declare it the duty of the government to administer the country well.

Karol Aquilina said the Finance Minister had ignored the law when the chairman of the FIAU board was appointed without parliamentary scrutiny, rendering the appointment completely illegal. The consequences of this may be serious, he said, appealing to the government to shoulder the responsibility and take the decisions it had to take.

Photo: Shutterstock

Extending court hours

The minister said court needs to extend its working hours to cover the afternoons if need be, and thus trim the backlog.

Zammit Lewis said a €2.2 million investment in four new halls and 25 new offices was being undertaken in Strait Street.

On the Superior Appeals Court, he agreed with Azzopardi that it was not acceptable that such cases continued to be heard after three to four years.

However, while in 2012 there had been 1,000 pending appeals, these had only increased to 1,400. He said although it was true that more members of the judiciary were needed, he could never accept the argument that delays were only due to this. Increasing numbers would not necessarily mean a better output. There also had to be more efficiency.

Former minister Manuel Mallia cautioned that the duty of judges was not just to listen to cases but also to write judgements and he preferred well-studied ones to hastily-written ones.

Four-year wait for divorce

Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar said the government wanted to remain a champion of civil rights and for five consecutive years Malta continued to occupy the top slot in Europe for LGBTIQ rights.

Through the planned gender balance reform and the gender mainstreaming strategy, Malta would also move up in the Equality Index. 

She also spoke on the divorce law, echoing the Prime Minister’s statement a few days ago that it did not make sense to keep separated couples waiting for four years before they could continue making plans with their lives. She hoped the opposition would support the planned changes.

File photo

The cost of the pandemic

Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg noted that domestic violence had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic with little chance of relief. There were also problems among couples going through separation or who were separated and had a maintenance agreement. There were also cases of children who were not being allowed to see their parents.

She noted that the budget contained just four sentences on equality and reforms but only €130,000 were being allocated for them under other reforms.

Buttigieg called for teleworking, put into practice in the early months of the pandemic, to be made a choice wherever possible saying it was a measure that would create more balance.