Mon. Sep 16th, 2024

EU Justice Scoreboard 2024: Improved perception of judicial independence

Jun 11, 2024 , ,

Brussels, 11 June 2024

Today, the European Commission has published the twelfth edition of the EU Justice Scoreboard, an annual overview providing comparative data on the efficiency, quality, and independence of justice systems among the EU Member States. Compared to last year, the public’s perception of judicial independence has improved, also in countries that had experienced systemic challenges.

This year’s Scoreboard includes several new figures on accessibility of justice, such as on the accessibility to justice professions for persons with disabilities; on the accessibility to justice for consumers when exercising representative actions protecting their collective interests; on the salaries of judicial and prosecutorial expert staff; and on the notaries and their powers in the succession procedures. The 2024 edition also includes, for the first time, specific new figures on the independence of justice, for example on the appointment of court presidents, on national frameworks regarding asset declarations, and on the dismissal of Prosecutors General.

Key findings of the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard:

  • Perception of judicial independence has improved, including among countries which experienced systemic challenges: A Eurobarometer survey among the general public shows that, since 2016, the general public’s perception of judicial independence has improved or remained stable in 19 Member States. Amongst companies, another Eurobarometer survey shows the perception of independence has improved or remained stable in 19 Member States compared to 2016. Perception of judicial independence improved, both among the general public and companies, also in countries that have experienced systemic challenges to judicial independence.
  • An insight into the appointment of prosecutors and the dismissal of the Prosecutor General: In 14 Member States, either the independent prosecutorial councils or prosecution service itself appoints prosecutors. The power for the executive (either the Minister of Justice, the Government, or the Head of State) to appoint prosecutors is subject to a judicial review in nearly all the 12 Member States where prosecutors are appointed this way. It is also mandatory in nearly all these 12 Member States to state reasons for the rejection of a candidate for prosecutor. 20 Member States give the executive or parliament the power to dismiss the Prosecutor General (in five of them on a proposal by the Council for the Judiciary), and in six Member States this power is given to the Council for the Judiciary. 16 Member States offer the possibility of a review of the decision.
  • Ongoing potential for enhancing the digitalisation of justice systems: Only six Member States have procedural rules which allow the admissibility of evidence in digital format in civil, commercial, administrative, and criminal cases. In 26 Member States, this is a possibility in some cases or in some areas of law. Moreover, the findings of this year’s edition reveal that there is still room for improvement when it comes to the possibility to initiate proceedings or file a claim online. Nine Member States either allow for this possibility in some situations only or do not allow it at all.
  • In most Member States there are specific arrangements for supporting the participation of persons with disabilities as professionals in the justice system: In 20 Member States there are at least some specific arrangements supporting the participation of persons with disabilities.
  • Varying degrees of specific arrangements for child-friendly proceedings with children involved as victims or suspects or as accused persons: In 26 Member States information is provided about the victim’s or suspect’s rights and the proceedings in a child-friendly way and in 18 Member States, criminal proceedings involving children are treated as a matter of urgency.
Next steps

The information contained in the EU Justice Scoreboard contributes to the monitoring carried out within the framework of the European Semester and the Annual Rule of Law Cycle — the findings will feed into the Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report. The 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard has been further developed to address the need for additional comparative information (such as a new figure on the salaries of judicial and prosecutorial expert staff and on the procedure to dismiss Prosecutors General) identified during the preparation of the 2023 Rule of Law Report. The Scoreboard’s data are also used for the monitoring of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans.

Background

Launched in 2013, the EU Justice Scoreboard is used by the Commission to monitor justice reforms in Member States and is one of the tools in the EU’s Rule of Law toolbox. The Scoreboard focuses on the three main elements of an effective justice system:

  • Efficiency: indicators on the length of proceedings, clearance rate and number of pending cases;
  • Quality: indicators on accessibility (such as legal aid and court fees), training, budget and salaries of judges and prosecutors, human resources and digitalisation;
  • Independence: indicators on perceived judicial independence among the general public and companies, and on safeguards relating to judges and the functioning of national prosecution services.

As in previous editions, the 2024 edition presents data from two Eurobarometer surveys on how the public and companies perceive judicial independence in each Member State.

The findings of the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard have been considered in the country-specific assessment carried out within the 2024 European Semester, as well as in the evaluation of the implementation of Member States’ Recovery and Resilience Plans, and the annual Rule of Law report. In 2024, the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy — which sets out strategic guidance to mitigate the negative impacts of the energy shocks, foster sustainable growth, and increase the EU’s resilience — reiterates the link between effective justice systems and an economy that works for people in Member States. Well-functioning and fully independent justice systems have a positive impact on investment decisions and on the willingness of all actors to launch investment projects.

Under the 2021-2027 Justice programme, the EU is making over €305 million available for the further development of a European area of justice. It will also help improve the effectiveness of national justice systems and strengthen the rule of law, democracy, and the protection of fundamental rights, including by ensuring effective access to justice for citizens and businesses. The programme funds activities, which cover training for judges and other legal practitioners, mutual learning, judicial cooperation, and awareness-raising.

More information
Quote(s)

The latest EU Justice Scoreboard shows that our efforts to strengthen judicial independence across the EU are bearing fruit. By highlighting key areas for improvement and celebrating progress, we aim to foster trust in our legal institutions and ensure that justice is independent and accessible to all. Over the last twelve years, the Scoreboard has proven to be a reliable tool to keep stock of our progress and to identify areas of potential improvement across Member States, contributing to our efforts to further safeguard the rule of law and support the rights of citizens and businesses alike.

Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency

 

EU Commission Q&A about the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard

Brussels, 11 June 2024

Today, the European Commission has published the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard, which gives a comparative overview of the efficiency, quality, and independence of justice systems in EU Member States. This is already the twelfth edition, which allows for a long-term overview of how the situation in Member States has evolved in all three areas of effective justice: efficiency, quality and independence.

What is the EU Justice Scoreboard?

The EU Justice Scoreboard is a comparative information tool, which aims to assist the EU and Member States to improve the effectiveness of national justice systems. It does this by providing data on the efficiency, quality, and independence of the justice systems in all Member States. It is one of the instruments in the EU’s Rule of Law toolbox used by the Commission to monitor justice reforms undertaken by Member States.

The Scoreboard contributes to identifying good practices and potential shortcomings. It shows trends in the functioning of national justice systems over time. It does not present an overall single ranking, but an overview of how all the justice systems function. This is based on various indicators that are of common interest to all Member States.

The Scoreboard does not promote any particular type of justice system and puts all Member States on an equal footing. Whatever the model of the national justice system – or the legal tradition in which it is anchored – timeliness, independence, affordability, and user-friendly access are some of the essential features of an effective justice system.

Why are national justice systems important for the EU?

Effective justice systems are essential for the application and enforcement of EU law and for upholding the rule of law and other values upon which the EU is founded and which are common to the Member States. They ensure that individuals and businesses can fully enjoy their rights, strengthen mutual trust, and help to build a business and investment-friendly environment in the single market. Effective justice systems are crucial for the implementation of EU law because national courts act as EU courts when applying EU law.

What about the link between the Scoreboard and the Rule of Law Report?

The EU Justice Scoreboard is part of the EU’s rule of law toolbox and one of the sources of information for the Rule of Law Report. It provides comparative data on the functioning of national justice systems, while the annual Rule of Law Report presents a qualitative assessment of significant developments related to the rule of law in all 27 Member States. The Justice Scoreboard and the Rule of Law Report thus complement each other. The 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard has been further developed also to reflect the needs for additional comparative information as observed during the preparation of the 2024 Rule of Law Report.

The EU’s rule of law toolbox consists of a wide range of tools to carefully monitor, assess, and respond to the rule of law issues in Member States, among others infringement procedures, the European Semester, the EU Justice Scoreboard, the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the procedure of Article 7 TEU, and the Annual Rule of Law Cycle, which includes the Rule of Law Report.

What are the main innovations in the twelfth edition of the EU Justice Scoreboard?

The 2024 edition of the Scoreboard contains 15 new or remodelled figures that extend our understanding of:

  • the accessibility to justice professions for persons with disabilities;
  • the accessibility to justice for consumers when exercising representative actions protecting their collective interests;
  • the accessibility to justice for children, both in civil in criminal proceedings;
  • the legal aid fees paid to lawyers in a specific criminal case;
  • the notaries and their powers in the procedures for succession;
  • the salaries of judicial and prosecutorial expert staff;
  • the appointment of court Presidents;
  • the anti-corruption bodies involved in verifying asset declarations;
  • the dismissal of Prosecutors General;
  • the appointment of members of the highest instances exercising constitutional jurisdictions.
What are the main findings of the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard?
  • The perception of judicial independence has improved, including among countries which experienced systemic challenges. A Eurobarometer survey conducted among the general public shows that, since 2016, the general public’s perception of judicial independence has improved or remained stable in 19 Member States. Compared to last year, the public’s perception of independence has improved or remained stable in 17 Member States. In two Member States, the level of perceived independence remains particularly low. Amongst companies, another Eurobarometer survey shows the perception of independence has improved or remained stable in 19 Member States compared to 2016. Compared to last year, companies’ perception of independence improved or remained stable in 18 Member States. Perception of judicial independence also improved, both among the general public and companies, in countries that have experienced systemic challenges to judicial independence.
  • Efficiency trends remained positive in most civil, commercial, and administrative cases, based on the available data from 2012 to 2022. In 2022, we continue to see the effect of the measures taken by Member States to make their systems more resilient and to recover them after the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Indicators remained the same for the digitalisation of justice, in order to ensure continuity and comparability. The 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard shows that Member States continue to improve the digitalisation of their justice systems. Although most Member States already use digital solutions in different contexts and to varying degrees, there is significant room for improvement.
  • Most Member States have at least some arrangements for supporting the participation of persons with disabilities as professionals in the justice system. 20 Member States have measures in place to support persons with disabilities in their access to employment in the justice system. 18 Member States have measures in place to support the employment and working conditions of persons with disabilities who are already working in the justice system, including regarding their pay and protection from dismissals.
  • Regarding access to justice for children, all Member States have at least some specific arrangements for child-friendly justice or proceedings (both civil and criminal or juvenile justice proceedings). In all Member States, the privacy and personal data of children involved in judicial or non-judicial proceedings and other interventions are protected in accordance with national law, and children are heard in child-friendly specialised settings.
  • In terms of succession procedures and authorities involved in them, the Scoreboard highlights that, in 13 Member States, part of the procedure is before courts and part of it before notaries. In five Member States, the procedures are entirely before the courts, whereas in two the procedures are entirely before the notaries. In four Member States, the courts can entrust notaries to act in their place.
How can effective justice systems have an impact on the economy?

Effective justice systems that uphold the rule of law have a positive economic impact. Where judicial systems guarantee the enforcement of rights, creditors are more likely to lend, businesses are dissuaded from opportunistic behaviour, transaction costs are reduced, and innovative businesses are more likely to invest.

The beneficial impact of well-functioning national justice systems for the economy is supported by a wide range of studies and academic literature, including from the European Central Bank, the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank.

The national recovery and resilience plans include justice reforms and investments in a number of Member States. The EU Justice Scoreboard will help monitor progress in implementing these reforms.

How does the 2024 EU Justice Scoreboard examine the effectiveness of justice?

The Scoreboard uses indicators that examine the three main features of an effective justice system: efficiency, quality and independence.

Efficiency

The indicators related to the efficiency of proceedings include: caseload, estimated length of judicial proceedings (disposition time), clearance rate (the ratio of the number of resolved cases over the number of incoming cases) and the number of pending cases. The Scoreboard also presents the average length of proceedings in specific fields where EU law is involved.

Quality

Easy access to justice, adequate resources, effective assessment tools and the use of information and communication technologies are key factors that contribute to the quality of justice systems. The Scoreboard uses various indicators to cover digitalisation, such as access to online information and to court judgments, digital-ready procedural rules, use of digital technology by courts and prosecution services, secure electronic tools for communication or online access to case files.

Independence

The Scoreboard examines the perception of judicial independence, both among the general public and in companies. It also presents several new figures dedicated to bodies dealing with prevention, investigation and prosecution of corruption cases, including a figure on the length of court proceedings dealing with bribery cases. The Scoreboard contains information on the appointment of Supreme Court Presidents and Prosecutors General, on the highest instances exercising constitutional jurisdictions, the powers of the Councils for the Judiciary, and the independence of lawyers and bars.

What is the methodology of the EU Justice Scoreboard?

The Scoreboard uses various sources of information. Large parts of the quantitative data is provided by the Council of Europe’s European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), with which the Commission has concluded a contract to carry out a specific annual study. This data ranges from 2012 to 2021 and has been provided by Member States according to CEPEJ’s methodology. The study also provides detailed comments and country-specific factsheets, which give more contextual information and should be taken together with the figures.

Other sources of data are the group of contact persons on national justice systems, National contact points for anti-corruption, the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the EU, the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the EU (ACA-Europe), the European Competition Network, the Communications Committee, the European Observatory on infringements of intellectual property rights, the Expert Group on Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, Eurostat, the Council of Bar and Law Societies in Europe, the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), and the NADAL Network of Prosecutors.

Why are some data missing?

Although data are still missing for certain Member States, the data gap continues to decrease. The remaining difficulties in gathering data are often due to insufficient statistical capacity or the fact that the national categories for which data is collected do not exactly correspond to the ones used for the Scoreboard. The Commission will continue to encourage Member States to reduce this data gap further.

How does the EU Justice Scoreboard feed into the European Semester and how is it related to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the Rule of Law Report?

By comparing information on Member States’ justice systems, the Scoreboard makes it easier both to identify best practices and shortcomings, and to keep track of challenges and progress made. In the context of the European Semester, country-specific assessments are carried out through a bilateral dialogue with the national authorities and the stakeholders concerned. Where the shortcomings identified have macroeconomic significance, the European Semester analysis may lead to the Commission proposing to the Council to adopt country-specific recommendations to improve the national justice systems in individual Member States.

The RRF has made available more than EUR 648 billion in loans and non-repayable financial support, of which each Member State would need to allocate a minimum of 20% to the digital transition and a minimum of 37% to measures contributing to climate objectives. So far, the reforms and investments proposed by Member States have exceeded these targets, with an estimated digital expenditure at 26% and climate expenditure at about 40%. The RRF offers an opportunity to address country-specific recommendations related to national justice systems and to accelerate national efforts to complete the digital transformation of justice systems.

The Justice Scoreboard also feeds into the annual Rule of Law Report. More information can be found in the dedicated section above.

How does the Justice programme support the effectiveness of justice systems?

With a total budget of around EUR 305 million for the period 2021-2027, the justice programme supports the further development of the European area of Justice based on the rule of law, including the independence, quality, and efficiency of the justice system, based on mutual recognition and trust, and on judicial cooperation.

In 2023, around EUR 41.1 million were provided to fund projects and other activities under the three specific objectives of the programme:

•  EUR 11.1 million were provided to promote judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters and to contribute to the effective and coherent application and enforcement of EU instruments as well as to support to Member States for their connection to the ECRIS-TCN system;

•  EUR 16 million were provided in support to training of justice professionals on EU civil, criminal and fundamental rights law, legal systems of the Member States and the rule of law;

•  EUR 14 million were provided to promote access to justice (including e-Justice), victims’ rights and the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime as well as to support the development and use of digital tools.

More information

Source – EU Commission

 

Forward to your friends