The European Commission published on 11 June 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.
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What is the EU Justice Scoreboard?
The EU Justice Scoreboard is a comparative information tool which aims to assist 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.
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.
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.
EU Justice Scoreboard factsheet
2024 EU Justice Scoreboard quantitative data factsheet
Factsheet EU’s rule of law toolbox
Source: European Commission
