Spain is one of the countries of the European Union where justice is perceived as more politicized. More than half of the population considers that the independence of judges and courts is bad or very bad, while only a third of those surveyed rate it as good or very good, according to the Justice Scoreboard published this Thursday by the European Commission.
Only Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia register worse results than Spain in terms of the perception of judicial independence. Our country is even one step below Hungary, which (like Poland) has been the subject of multiple disciplinary proceedings in Brussels for politicizing justice and has frozen European funds for this reason. At the opposite end of the classification, Finland, Denmark, Austria and Germany are the countries whose citizens have the most confidence on judicial independence.
Among the reasons that Spanish citizens cite to justify their distrust in judicial independence, the most important is the interference of the Government and politicians (46%). Next comes pressure from economic powers or other special interests (41%), while a third of those surveyed consider that the problem is that the status and position of judges does not sufficiently guarantee their independence.
Perception of the independence of judges and courts in EU countries
To the Commissioner of Justice, the Belgian liberal Didier Reynders, they have asked him what governments can do (without specifically citing Spain) to improve the perception of independence of the courts. Reynders replies that the key is in implement the recommendations that Brussels has addressed to them in its annual report on the rule of law, the next issue of which will be published in July.
In the case of Spain, the recommendations for Spain were two: Urgently renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and then proceed with its reform so that the judges themselves are the ones who choose at least half of their members; and strengthen the independence of the State Attorney Generalseparating his mandate from the Government.
The Brussels Scoreboard also examines the efficiency of judicial systems, and our country does not fare too well in this chapter either. Spain is one of the Member States in which it takes the longest to resolve civil and commercial disputes, with an average of 826 days in third instance. The worst students are Cyprus and Italy.
In terms of resources, Spain is in the middle of the classification in public spending on justice (0.38% of GDP). However, our country is one of the Member States with fewer judges per 100,000 inhabitants (11, compared to 25 in Germany or 42 in Croatia). Besides, the proportion of women in the Supreme Court (22.4%) is among the worst in the EU.
As for salaries, Supreme Court judges and prosecutors are among those who earn the most in the EU in relative terms (5.4 times the average salary), only surpassed by Italy, Romania, Portugal and Cyprus. On the other hand, newcomers to the career earn more in line with the community average (2.2 times the average salary).
