Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The Italian government decided to delay implementation of a judicial reform required to access coronavirus crisis recovery funds.
The new government headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pointed out that the government will implement the reform this year as the European Commission requested, according to Reuters reporting on Monday.
The reform, put into motion by Meloni’s predecessor Mario Draghi, includes new rules but does not set up instruments and resources to put the rules into practice, Meloni warned at a press conference on Monday.
“Our courts and prosecutors’ offices are not ready and this risks paralysing our judicial system,” she stressed and added that the Government decided to delay implementation at the request of prosecutors’ offices.
The union of judges and prosecutors (CSM) welcomed the move, pointing out that it will allow time necessary to reorganise the judiciary.
On the other hand, the opposition and Italy’s law lobby opposed the plan to delay the reform, announcing protests against the government.
According to initial plans, the reform was to be implemented at the start of November. In order to access its coronavirus crisis recovery funds, Italy has to shorten trials by 25% in criminal cases and 40% in civil cases in five years.
New COVID-19 policies
Besides delaying the judicial reform, the government also reversed the decision to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for health workers. Draghi’s administration imposed the mandate as part of a broader package of restrictions.
Meloni pointed out that her predecessors Draghi and Giuseppe Conte adopted an “ideological” approach to the coronavirus pandemic and announced she would not follow in their footsteps. “The previous governments took a host of measures that had no scientific evidence” backing them, she noted.
Meloni stressed that nurses and doctors who were suspended for not wanting to get vaccinated against COVID-19 must be reinstated immediately. The government noted last week that fines for people who do not want the jab should be scrapped
