Government says laws must be 'easier to read'

Maltese laws must be written in a simplified language that everyone will be able to understand, social dialogue minister Helena Dalli said.

"Scandinavian laws are easy to read, for example. All laws effect people, so why shouldn't people be able to understand and comment on thse laws?" Dalli said.

"Isnt politics about improving people's lives after all? Making laws easier to read will promote public participation when the government calls for public consultation on a white paper."

Dalli was addressing the fifth round table conference organised to reduce bureaucracy. The government's electoral programme promised to reduce bureaucracy by 25%.

"We also need to improve the public service," Dalli said. "Having applications and information online saves time and they no longer have to go to and queue up at offices. We also launched a website dedicated to immigrants where they're provided with social, legal and cultural information about Malta. This helps with integration."

Dalli also said that transgender people are now allowed to have their new identity on their ID cards, passports and exam certificates. "What we take for granted creates a lot of challenges for them" Dalli said.

She also said that more laws need to have sunset clauses. This means that laws will have an expiry date after which they will cease to be laws unless legislative action is taken to maintain them. "Many Maltese laws lack this clause. which means we have a lot of extra laws, 35% of which effect business and harm global competitiveness."

"Extra bureaucracy ultimately costs taxpayers," Dalli said. "We need to combat it intensively so as to utilize the EU funds 2014-2020 as beneficialy as possible."