Justice Delayed and Justice Denied: Report on the Non-Implementation of European Judgments and the Rule of Law

The European Implementation Network (EIN) and Democracy Reporting International (DRI) are delighted to present “Justice Delayed and Justice Denied: Non-Implementation of European Courts’ Judgments and the Rule of Law,” a joint report on the non-implementation of European Court judgments in EU states.

The attacks on fundamental European values in recent years has continued to raise concern for European stakeholders – governments, the media, and citizens alike. The EU has introduced a series of policy measures designed to halt and reverse this phenomenon, ranging from the new annual rule of law review cycle, to targeted measures, such as withholding structural funds from countries with severe infringements of the rule of law.

In 2022, following civil society calls for the EU’s rule of law reporting to take into account the non-implementation of judgments from the two key European courts – the ECtHR and the CJEU (hereafter, “the European Courts”) – the EU Commission has included this type of data in its annual Rule of Law Report. This development allowed the EU to identify longer-term problems with the rule of law across all Member States that had previously been overlooked.

As of 1 January 2023, there were 616 leading ECtHR judgments waiting to be implemented across the EU. Each of these represents a human rights problem that has not been resolved – and which, therefore, is likely to recur.

Some 40 % of leading judgments concerning EU states from the last ten years are yet to be implemented. This means that the systemic human rights issues these judgments identify have not yet been resolved; it indicates that national authorities in Europe are not sufficiently active in dealing with a significant proportion of human rights issues identified by the ECtHR.

The average length of time that leading ECtHR judgments concerning EU states have been pending implementation is 5 years and 1 month. Some cases require extensive reforms that can – and should – take many years to implement. It should, however, be possible to implement the majority of leading judgments in a relatively short period of time. The longer leading judgments have been pending, the greater the concern that implementation is not being carried out.

In view of these recommendations, EIN and DRI set out the following recommendations to the European Commission and to EU institutions:

Report Recommendations

1. The European Commission should analyse the level of implementation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgments in European Union (EU) Member States in its annual Rule of Law Report. The Report should also include specific recommendations for (a) states with particularly concerning records of ECtHR implementation overall; and (b) states with ECtHR and CJEU judgments pending implementation concerning the areas covered by the Report, especially those of independence and impartiality of the judiciary.

2. The European Commission should consistently use other tools available, including infringement procedures and financial pressure, to tackle the failure of certain Member States to fully implement reforms in line with the CJEU and ECtHR judgments. 

3. The EU institutions should raise the issue of ECtHR and CJEU judgment non-implementation and the data in this report in discussions with Member State governments and national parliaments.

4. The EU should fund civil society activities designed to enhance ECtHR and CJEU judgement implementation, as well as Council of Europe activities designed to enhance ECtHR judgement implementation.

For more on individual countries’ implementation records, see our implementation country map.