Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| ROADMAP | |
| Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work in order to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to make available any relevant information that they may have. | |
| Title of the initiative | 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard |
| Lead DG – responsible unit | DG JUST – C.1 |
| Likely Type of initiative | Non-legislative |
| Indicative Planning | April 2018 |
| Additional Information | http://ec.europa.eu/justice/effective-justice/scoreboard/index\_en.htm |
| This Roadmap is provided for information purposes only and its content might change. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the Roadmap, including its timing, are subject to change. | |

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| A. Context, Problem definition and Subsidiarity Check |
| Context |
| Effective EU Member States’ justice systems are crucial for ensuring that individuals and businesses can fully enjoy their rights, for strengthening mutual trust and for building a business and investment-friendly environment in the single market. They underpin the application of EU law, ensuring its equal application across the European Union.  The EU Justice Scoreboard is a regular annual information tool aiming to assist the Member States to achieve more effective justice by providing objective, reliable and comparable data on the quality, independence and efficiency of justice systems in all Member States in a context where a large number of Member States are pursuing efforts to improve the effectiveness of their national justice system. The Scoreboard does not present an overall single ranking but an overview of how all the justice systems function - based on indicators and overviews relating to their quality, efficiency and independence- that are of common interest for all Member States.   In 2018, the Commission will present its 6th edition. |
| Problem the initiative aims to tackle |
| ‘Effective justice systems support economic growth and defend fundamental rights. That is why Europe promotes and defends the rule of law.’ [1](#footnote2)  This role of Member States’ justice systems underlined by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, is crucial for ensuring that individuals and businesses can fully enjoy their rights, for strengthening mutual trust and for building a business and investment-friendly environment in the single market. Moreover, as underlined by Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, effective justice systems also underpin the application of EU law: ‘The European Union is built on a common set of values, enshrined in the Treaty. These values include respect for the rule of law. That is how this organisation functions, that is how our Member States ensure the equal application of EU law across the European Union.’ [2](#footnote3)    Timeliness, independence, affordability and user-friendly access are some of the essential parameters of an effective justice system, whatever the model of the national justice system or the legal tradition in which it is anchored.  Improving the effectiveness of national justice systems is also a well-established priority of the European Semester — the EU’s annual cycle of economic policy coordination. The EU Justice Scoreboard feeds the European Semester.  The 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard will assist the Member States in identifying potential shortcomings, improvements and good practices as well as trends in the functioning of national justice systems over time.  The Scoreboard mainly focuses on litigious civil and commercial cases as well as administrative cases. |
| Basis for EU intervention (legal basis and subsidiarity check) |
| Access to an effective justice system is an essential right at the foundation of European democracies, is enshrined in the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and is crucial for the correct application of the EU law.    Whenever a national court applies EU legislation, it acts as a ‘Union court’ and must provide an effective judicial protection to everyone, citizens and enterprises, whose rights guaranteed in EU law were violated. The importance of this right to an effective remedy is enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 47).    In order to respect the principle of equality between Member States and to keep track of progress, it is indispensable to have a comparative overview in the context of the European Semester of how civil, commercial and administrative justice systems function in all Member States |
| B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how |
| The EU Justice Scoreboard assists the EU and Member States to achieve more effective justice by providing objective, reliable and comparable data on the quality, independence and efficiency of justice systems in all Member States. Such data is essential to support reforms in national justice systems required to render justice systems more effective for citizens and businesses.    The EU Justice Scoreboard also allows studying trends how justice systems have changed since the first scoreboard was published in 2013. It thus helps to identify the areas where progress has been made as well as areas where continued effort is needed.    Information from the EU Justice Scoreboard feeds the European Semester. In the context of the European Semester, country-specific assessments are carried out through bilateral dialogue with the national authorities and stakeholders concerned. This assessment takes into account the particularities of the legal system and the context of the Member States concerned. It may lead to the Commission proposing to the Council to adopt country-specific recommendations on the improvement of national justice systems. |
| C. Better regulation |
| Consultation of citizens and stakeholders |
| As the EU Justice Scoreboard is a regular annual information tool, whose objective is to present objective and comparable data collected from national authorities and other bodies, no specific consultation is carried out. |
| Evidence base and data collection |
| The EU Justice Scoreboard uses various sources of information and data. These include the Member States' contact persons on national justice systems (regular meetings take place throughout the year), the Council of Europe Commission for the Evaluation of the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ), the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the EU, Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Administrative Jurisdictions of the EU (ACA), the European Competition Network, the Communications Committee (COCOM), the European Observatory on infringements of intellectual property rights, Eurostat, the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the Eurostat and other subjects. The EU Justice Scoreboard is developed in cooperation with the relevant public authorities of the Member States and stakeholders, including those listed above. No impact assessment is needed for this initiative because the EU Justice Scoreboard is a regular annual information tool. |

:   [(1)](#footnoteref2)
     2016 State of the Union Speech delivered before the European Parliament on 14 September 2016: 
    <https://ec.europa.eu/priorities/state-union-2016_en>
:   [(2)](#footnoteref3)
     
    <http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-16-2023_en.htm>

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