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Carm Mifsud Bonnici rubbishes EU Justice scoreboard report
Former Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici rubbishes EU justice scoreboard that gave negative outlook to Maltese courts
22 April 2013, 12:00am
Nestor Laiviera
Nestor Laiviera
2 min read
Former Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici
Former Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici has rubbished a recent EU justice scoreboard report that found that despite Malta's high rate of judges, magistrates, and especially lawyers the court system "is not performing adequately and needs improvement."
"The report was certainly not one of the level that one would expect from the EU Commission," Mifsud Bonnici in a parliamentary address on Monday that was characterized by a rundown of work done in the police force, the prison, and the courts under his time as minster in the preceding administration.
"Certainly, if I was minister at the time when this report was published I would have said a word or two to the Commission regarding how it arrived to figures," Mifsud Bonnici said, speaking of the EU justice scoreboard report.
He noted how the report itself noted that it found several difficulties in the process of obtaining data, and that comparisons of the data "was very problematic."
"With all due respect, I think that the report does not do the commission justice as it does not truly respect the figures," Mifsud Bonnici.
By way of example, the former minister pointed to the report's observation that the time necessary for the Administrative Tribunal to resolve a case (in 2010) stood at 2,500 days per case.
"I cannot fathom how the Commission reached this conclusion when the Administrative Tribunal takes 2,500 days to close a case when the Tribunal came into effect in 2009. That means that the longest a case could have been before the Tribunal was only 365 days."
"This report does not do the Commission justice," Mifsud Bonnici reiterated. "One needs to ensure that this message is passed onto Commissioner Viviane Reding."
According to the report, which found a lack of data to compare the justice budgets with the clearance rates of court cases, it looks like the timely and efficient disposition of cases "is more a matter of distribution and efficiency of use and procedural complexity, and less a matter of amount of resources that are allocated."
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The EU report once again fails another of our institutions namely our judicial system. It seems that ratings and the Maltese style of doing things are incompatible and do not go hand in hand, We are always ready to find excuses but then I ask how do the other nations pass examinations which we always seem to flunk it. Please let us stop blaming the ratings, admit incompetence and start taking revision classes. Let us hope the new minister is a cut above the mediocre and will pass his exam after studying the syllabus which his predecessors obviously failed to do.
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The EU report once again fails another of our institutions namely our judicial system. It seems that ratings and the Maltese style of doing things are incompatible and do not go hand in hand, We are always ready to find excuses but then I ask how do the other nations pass examinations which we always seem to flunk it. Please let us stop blaming the ratings, admit incompetence and start taking revision classes. Let us hope the new minister is a cut above the mediocre and will pass his exam after studying the syllabus which his predecessors obviously failed to do.
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Is this ex-minister living on cloud9. All he has to do is log on the Courts of Justice website and verify the facts himself. In my opinion the negativity portrayed by the EU is grossly understated.
Emmanuel Mallia •
You are an excellent diplomat, as your famous family members, but you are too good for a politician, and now its too late to wake up and speak !!
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It is quite a feat to be in denial, shoot the messenger and have your head in the sand - all at the same time :-)
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Parir lil Dr.CMB:ara ma jfettillekx tinforma lil Vivienne Reding ghax kont infurmajtha jien fuq l-intransigenza tieghek meta jien kont tlabtek biex tghini fuq il-kasta' missieri, Karm Grima,u kif l-Inkjesta Muscat Azzoppardi hallija tinsteraq Dr.EFA ghax kixfet min kien orkestra dan l-att krimini fahxi, hbija Dr. EFA u Halla lil Dr.A. Sant jisraqha. Dan il-kas il- mhux 2000 gurnata imma 33 sena.
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Dr Franco Debono was right all the way.
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The PN STILL can't take serious criticism of their past cock-ups!
Priscilla Darmenia •
However if the Commission gave praises to our court system, I am sure Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici would have claimed credit for it. Sour grapes. It is an open secret that a court case in Malta takes years to be concluded.
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How can the former minister pass such a comment when he was aware of what went on in our court cases. He engineered the system to cause delays so as not to flood the euopean courts with maltese court cases demanding justice for our human rights. Unresolved cases for over 50years, constitutional cases which last 15years. He should be held responsible for these injustices in our so called democracy.
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It was under his watch, so he should pass his own objections on , not forgetting to tell her that he was removed by parliament from minister of Justice.
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It is incredible how 40 days from an election the GONZIPN members start to criticize the EU on its reports when just 39 days ago they were applauding them. What went wrong in that 1 Election Day? Clearly the EU and the People of Malta saw right through the GONZIPN Machiavellian manipulations of the real evidence and came out with their decisions. Now the GONZIPN are trying to denigrate the EU and to continue in their arrogant ways to justify their actions. This will only lead to even more years of oblivion for the PN.
Emmanuel Mallia •
You woke up, at last !
