Country data: Malta

All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

The last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged.

 

Transposition deficit (percentage of all directives not transposed): 1.1% (last report: 0.7%) – a new increase of 0.4 percentage points. Malta is one of nine Member States that missed the 1% target set by the European Council due to an increasing deficit in the reporting period.   
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

Malta was one of two Member States (together with Denmark) that have always achieved the 1% target over the past decade and beyond. However, it missed the objective in the reporting period, probably due to the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Malta did not transpose 9 of the 26 single market directives (35%) due to have been transposed in the 6 months before the cut-off date for calculating the deficit (1 June to 30 November 2021). This shows that Malta should probably make further efforts to organise timely transpose of the directives, although both its average delay in transposing directives and the correctness of its transposition are much better than the EU average (see below).

Overdue directives: 11 (last report: 7), including 4 on financial services. No directive is more than 2 years overdue.

Average delay in transposing directives: 3.7 months (last report: 3.7 months) – a stable delay. Malta is now the Member State with the shortest delay in transposing directives.
EU average = 8.6 months

Malta is now the best-performing Member State on transposing directives, after having had the third highest delay for this indicator in December 2019, in. Most of its outstanding directives (10/11) have been due for less than 6 months.

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 1% (last report: 0.8%) – an increase of 0.2 percentage points. This is Malta’s highest deficit ever but still well below the EU average.
EU average = 1.3%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings the Commission launched against Member States for incorrectly transposing single market directives has more than halved in 2 years. Nevertheless, the number of ongoing cases is still high. With 10 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, Malta is no longer the Member State with the lowest conformity deficit (as it was in the previous reporting period). However, it is still among the nine Member States with the lowest deficit (1% or less).

Evolution of transposition deficit

 

Evolution of conformity deficit

 

All comparisons are with the figures for 1 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

 

Pending single market cases: 19 (4 new cases and 9 cases closed (3 on energy, 3 on the environment and 3 on transport); last report: 24 pending cases) – a marked decrease of 5 cases. Malta is well below the EU average number of cases.     
EU average = 27 cases

After a significant upward trend between December 2016 and December 2020 (from 5 to 24 cases), The number of cases involving Malta is falling again (-21%).

The Commission launched 120 new cases against Member States in the reporting period (besides those for late transposition), and these were still pending on 1 December 2021. A total of 4  cases were launched against Malta, which is in line with the EU average of new cases launched in the reporting period. In addition, 9 Maltese cases have been resolved since December 2020, which is better than the EU average (8).

Problematic sectors: services and professions (5 cases); the environment (4 cases) and transport (4 cases), including 3 on air transport. Together, these make up 68% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 43.1 months for the 19 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 38 months) – this is an increase of 5.1 months and the case duration is longer than the EU average.           
EU average = 42.8 months

The average case duration of Maltese cases has increased by 18% in the last 3 years. Malta recently resolved 9 cases with an average duration of almost 3 years, including a 16-year-old case on air transport. However, 4 pending cases have durations of between 6 and 15 years (on air transport, indirect taxation, and services and professions). These are partly offset by the launch of 4 new cases (less than a year old).

Time taken to compliance with Court rulings: Malta has no more single market cases yet at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure (last report: 2.8 months)
EU average = 46.8 months

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – Malta performed very well.

• Results for four indicators increased significantly and rose above the EEA average.
• The percentage of requests accepted within 1 week decreased significantly.
• Both satisfaction surveys had a 100% score.

• Caseload – small
  Submitted cases: 2 (11 in 2020)
  Received cases: 19 (18 in 2020)

• Cases not accepted: 16 (2 in 2020)

• Resolution rate: 87% (94% in 2020)
• Handling time (as home centre)
  Reply in 7 days: 100% (100% in 2020) – very good
  Cases prepared in 30 days: 100% (91% in 2020) –  very good
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 100% (100% in 2020 ) – very good

• Cases not accepted within 30 days: 88% (100% in 2020) - good

• Handling time (as lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days:  87% (100% in 2020) – good
  Cases closed in 10 weeks:  64% (81% in 2020) – poor
• Staffing level
  Sufficient

No data available.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	3.8	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	97.2%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	n/a days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	3.0 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	25.9%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	9%	25%
No calls for bids	1%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	4.3%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	1%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	87%	64%
Decision speed (days)	156	99
SME contractors	93%	61%
SME bids	89%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	19%	31%
Missing calls for bids	2%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	4%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	16%	11%

Note: A typical (mid-ranking) EU country is used for the EU average for all indicators except the publication rate. Due to delays in data availability, publication rate results are based on 2020 data.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Restrictiveness indicator – architect	3.3	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	2.9	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	3.1	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	2.9	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	2.7	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	0.0	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	2.6	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.30	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.59	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	n/a	84.2%

Note: The EU restrictiveness indicator (EURI) measures the level of restrictiveness for the cross-border provision of services and the right of establishment for seven groups of professional services with a high share in the EU firms’ intermediate consumption or cross-border mobility. The level of restrictiveness is measured on a scale from 0 (least restrictive) to 6 (most restrictive). 

Indicator	2021	EU average
Access to public financial support (% of SMEs indicating deterioration)	10.6%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	n/a days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	0.02%	0.48%