Jonathan Attard’s unwavering dedication

After another damning EU rule of law report about Malta, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard issued a statement – not to acknowledge Labour’s abysmal failure, but to glorify his government.

In his surreal statement, Attard said his government has “an unwavering dedication to reinforce the rule of law in Malta” and “is committed to further good governance reforms”.

The Justice Minister completely distorted the report,  falsely claiming that it “highlights various noteworthy and significant developments that have occurred in Malta over the past year to strengthen the rule of law”.

I searched that 19-page EU rule of law report.  The word “noteworthy” does not appear at all.  The word “significant” appears three times – and not in a good way.

Here they are: “In 2024, the disposition time for first instance criminal cases recorded a significant increase, equal to 713 days against 527 in 2023”. The report highlighted that the time for civil and commercial cases remained among the lengthiest in the EU.  Now that’s truly significant – in the most terrible way.

The next time “significant” is mentioned is to denounce the Labour government for managing to achieve “a significant backslide in the clearance rate with regard to criminal cases”. You must agree with Attard. That’s pretty significant, too.

The final and third time the report mentions “significant” is to lambast Labour for its abuse of the public broadcaster for its political ends. It highlights “political appointments, opaque finances and the significant number of instances where political bias was proven in the broadcaster’s coverage”.

That’s almost as significant as the EU report’s conclusion on public broadcasting, which states that “no progress has been made”.

The Justice Minister may be right.  Those are pretty noteworthy achievements for Labour.  They are surely significant. But what he’s surely not right about is his surreal proclamation of Labour’s “unwavering dedication to reinforce the rule of law in Malta”.

To even make that claim in the face of such a damning EU report is brazen, but it betrays a far more sinister reality.  Malta’s Labour government has dominated the media landscape to such an extent that it can call white black and everybody will believe it.

Attard’s deceitful statement got widespread coverage.  It was short, sharp, and positive.  Everybody heard about it or read it.  But how many people read the full 19 pages of that devastating EU report?

That document reported on how Malta’s Labour government reacted to the recommendations of the previous year’s rule of law report.   What it shows is certainly not “unwavering dedication to the rule of law”. It definitely doesn’t show commitment to “good governance reforms”.  It shows that none of the recommendations from the previous year were implemented by Labour – not a single one.

There was “no progress” in four key areas, “limited progress” in two areas and “some further progress” in three areas.  And in two out of those three areas in which “some further progress” was noted, it’s on “pursuing the draft reform to involve the judiciary in the procedure for the appointment of the Chief Justice”  and “on strengthening efforts to improve efficiency of justice”.

That’s not great.  Labour has made some progress on “making efforts” and on “draft legislation”. The third area in which “some further progress” was noted was in “continuing efforts to address challenges related to the length of investigations of high-level corruption”. If Labour is making any efforts in this area, nobody’s noticed.

The rest of the report is a total condemnation of Labour’s utter failure to even start to address the recommendations from the previous year.  In particular, Attard missed the part stating that “No progress in strengthening the rules and mechanisms to enhance the independent governance and editorial independence of public service media”.

There was “no progress in adopting legislative and other safeguards to improve the working environment of journalists and limited progress on access to official documents”.

In particular, the report notes the ten new alerts registered by the Media Freedom Rapid Response mechanism.  Amongst those alerts was one relating to a certain Prime Minister Robert Abela “labelling certain outlets as fake news” and another highlighting “government decisions to reject certain freedom of information requests”.

There was “no progress” in measures to establish a national human rights institution.  Most importantly, there was “no progress in stepping up efforts to establish a robust track record of final judgements” with regard to high-level corruption cases.

The report refers to the 2025 Special Eurobarometer on Corruption, which showed that 83% consider corruption widespread in Malta.  It pointed out Malta’s significant worsening in its ranking on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index over the last five years.

It reminded the world that Robert Abela has done nothing “to ensure appropriate follow-up of the anti-corruption recommendations issued following the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia”.  It lamented that “the number of final judgments in corruption cases remains low”.

That’s no surprise.  The Permanent Commission against Corruption (PCAC), the report sarcastically noted, is still “to achieve concrete results”.  The Commission has “only three commissioners employed on a part-time basis, supported by one administrative officer”.

In the squeaky clean Malta, the Commission “did not receive any reports of corruption for the past two years”.  Amazingly, the report notes, “Since it was established, the PCAC has never transmitted any case to the Attorney General’s office for prosecution”.

The report is a litany of damning condemnations of Labour.  “Action to improve integrity measures for high-level politicians and officials remains to be taken”.  Labour has done nothing.

The report highlights in particular that “after a delay of a few months, Ministers filed their declarations in March 2025, although they remain unpublished”. Where is Attard’s “good governance”?

His government has done everything to shield corrupt politicians and officials.  In August 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee asked Malta to improve the protection for whistleblowers “to ensure that perpetrators of corruption are prosecuted and punished appropriately”.

Instead, Labour passed legislation denying citizens the right to request a magisterial inquiry to hold corrupt politicians to account.  Contradicting Jonathan Attard, the report noted that his magisterial inquiry reform is “effectively closing off an important avenue for accountability and justice in Malta”. Unwavering dedication indeed.