ROME, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Italy's new government on Monday delayed the application of a justice reform required to obtain European post-pandemic funds and scrapped a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health workers. Both moves mark discontinuity from the previous administration of Mario Draghi, who imposed tough COVID curbs and pushed through the contested justice reform aimed at speeding up Italy's slow judicial proceedings. Speaking at a news conference after cabinet approved the measures, Meloni accused her predecessors, Draghi and Giuseppe Conte, of taking an "ideological" approach to COVID and said she would do things differently. It would have been hard to start in a worse way," said Enrico Letta, head of the centre-left Democratic Party. The decision to delay the reform, which Meloni said was taken at the request of all Italy's prosecutors' offices, sparked criticism from the opposition, lawyers, and experts.

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