Judiciary in Freefall: Brussels Keeps the Score
That is the share of Maltese people who, according to the European Commission's latest rule of law report, say they have little or no confidence in the courts.
Forty-three percent. That is the share of Maltese people who, according to the European Commission's latest rule of law report, say they have little or no confidence in the courts. It is not the lowest number in the EU. But for a country that has spent two decades presenting itself as a jurisdiction of substance — a regulated, respectable, rule-of-law member state — it is the number that should be printed on every planning permit, every gaming licence, every prospectus that leaves this island carrying the Maltese flag.
The Commission's findings, reported by Times of Malta, are careful in the way Brussels documents always are: measured language, diplomatic hedging, progress "noted" here, concerns "remaining" there. Read past the syntax and the verdict is plain. Malta has made little meaningful progress on the reforms it was expected to deliver. Corruption concerns remain high. Judicial independence remains fragile in public perception, which in matters of institutional trust is the only perception that counts.
I have watched this island's relationship with the rule of law for four decades, and I will say what the Commission will not: the problem is not primarily the judges. The problem is the architecture around them — appointments that carry political fingerprints, prosecutions that move at a speed calibrated to convenience, and a culture in which the distance between power and accountability has never been allowed to shrink too far. The courts operate inside a system designed by people who understood, very well, the value of a slow machine.
What makes this week's reading grimmer is the company it keeps in the news. A man charged with prison escape walked free after a court discarded CCTV evidence on procedural grounds. Thirty-one people were detained in Gozo and face deportation — processed with an efficiency the justice system rarely applies to white-collar cases. These stories do not contradict each other. They rhyme.
Meanwhile, in Westminster, Andy Burnham has been elected leader of the Labour Party and is positioning himself as Britain's next prime minister. Robert Abela was among the first to offer congratulations, invoking the strength of UK-Malta ties. It is the correct diplomatic instinct. It is also worth noting that Britain, whatever its current difficulties, has a judiciary whose independence from the executive is not currently the subject of an EU monitoring report. That gap matters, and pretending otherwise is the kind of diplomacy that costs a country more than it saves.
The European Commission will publish another report in twelve months. Malta will respond with a list of working groups, draft legislation, and committees whose terms of reference are still being finalised. The Commission will note the progress. The numbers will move by three points in either direction. And the 43 percent will keep reading, keep watching, and keep drawing their own conclusions — which is, when you think about it, the most honest thing left to do.
