The verdict is out

No sooner had Robert Abela bragged that “the greatness of Labour” had transformed our quality of life than the European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report exposed the dire reality to which he and his party have reduced the country.

Abela boasted that thanks to Labour we can now afford “luxuries” we never dreamt of – “a car, a modest boat, two holidays a year”. Yet what the European Commission’s report exposes are the many real luxuries Abela and Labour have robbed us of. It lays bare the devastating damage Labour has inflicted on the country in an unbelievably short time.

Robert Abela has managed to engineer the most dramatic deterioration in public confidence in the independence of the judiciary across the entire European Union.

In the 2025 report, 69% of the Maltese public considered the independence of the courts to be “fairly or very good”. By 2026, that confidence had collapsed to just 47%. Despite all of Abela’s bombastic claims about improvements to the justice system, trust in the courts has plummeted.

That is hardly surprising. Abela personally launched repeated public attacks on individual members of the judiciary. His party’s media machine relentlessly demonised Magistrate Gabriella Vella simply for carrying out her duties, particularly during the Vitals inquiry. He also repeatedly mocked Magistrate Marseann Farrugia over the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry, belittling her work, minimising the complexity of the case and effectively inciting his supporters against her.

The European Commission did not overlook this behaviour. It noted that “certain critical remarks toward individual members of the judiciary by top Government officials risked undermining public confidence in the integrity of decisions on judicial appointments.” Abela’s politicisation of the appointment of the Chief Justice, together with his controversial meeting with Judge Wenzu Mintoff and the judge’s subsequent public letter accusing the Prime Minister of interference and being compromised, has only further eroded public confidence.

The Rule of Law Report is littered with damning criticism of Abela’s government. It notes that there has been “no further progress” on reforms to involve the judiciary in appointing the Chief Justice. Despite repeated claims by Abela, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard and government propaganda through TVM that court reforms are delivering results, the Commission concluded that “no further progress has been made on stepping up efforts to improve the efficiency of justice”.

Obtaining justice in Malta is now almost impossible. According to the Commission, Malta has the worst-performing justice system in the European Union for serious criminal proceedings. It noted with alarm that the average time needed to conclude severe criminal cases has almost doubled to 3,977 days – almost eleven years – the longest in the EU.

No matter what Abela tells you, that is the reality.

If your mother was killed by a drunk driver speeding through Valletta, if your son was murdered simply because of the colour of his skin, or if you are Police Sergeant Simon Schembri, who lost an arm after being dragged several hundred metres by an underage uninsured driver, the message is the same: do not expect justice any time soon. You may have to wait more than a decade before your case is concluded. But perhaps, as Abela suggests, you can console yourself with a modest boat or a new car – one that may have to be specially adapted because one of your limbs was left on the road.

Even administrative cases fare no better.

The Commission found that first-instance proceedings now take an average of 1,681 days – over four and a half years – again the longest in the European Union.

Brilliant. Abela has indeed made Malta number one in Europe – at all the wrong things.

These extraordinary delays are not just an inconvenience. They undermine justice itself. Victims are left in limbo while witnesses forget details, memories fade, evidence weakens and, in some cases, witnesses may not even survive long enough to testify.

While Abela paints a picture of an idyllic paradise, the European Commission found that “the backlog of pending cases also continued to increase” and warned that delays in the courts are undermining business confidence.

Reading the report is profoundly depressing.

The Commission found “no progress” on the key benchmark of delivering final judgments in corruption cases and only “limited progress” in reducing delays in investigations involving high-level corruption.

Even that may be generous.

We have witnessed the Attorney General’s office failing to renew freezing orders on the assets of Keith Schembri’s wife. Jurors have heard investigators admit they never recovered Keith Schembri’s missing mobile phone or laptop. Former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, whose conduct has again come under scrutiny during the ongoing trial, has still not been prosecuted despite a court ordering that he be investigated.

Meanwhile, as Joseph Muscat’s corruption case crawls through the courts at glacial speed, Robert Abela continues allowing the former Prime Minister to occupy taxpayer-funded offices at Sa Maison from where he continues conducting his private business. Despite the serious criminal charges Muscat faces, Abela has also continued permitting him to retain and use a diplomatic passport.

At the same time, millions of taxpayer euros are being squandered on film festivals, temporary Vision 2050 installations, publicity exercises and entertainment projects, while the Commission highlights the government’s failure to provide sufficient resources to tackle the enormous backlog of corruption cases, the excessive workload of judges and the fact that only four magistrates are handling preliminary inquiries into high-level corruption.

You do not have to wonder why.

Nor does the criticism stop there.

The Commission found only “limited progress” in improving journalists’ working environment, “limited progress” in increasing public participation in the legislative process and “no progress” whatsoever in establishing a National Human Rights Institution.

The Permanent Commission Against Corruption also received a devastating assessment. Once again, it received no corruption reports, found no corrupt practices and referred no cases to the Attorney General for prosecution.

The Commission also criticised Malta’s weakened asset declaration regime, pointing to the absence of effective verification mechanisms and its excessive reliance on self-reporting.

It highlighted the government’s continuing capture of the state broadcaster, warning that Malta lacks adequate safeguards to ensure editorial independence and concluding that TVM’s lack of independence represents a “very high risk”.

But as long as we have our car, our modest boat and our two holidays abroad each year, who cares?