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

Download the Justice Delayed and Justice Denied report here 

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.

Over the past few years, governments, media and citizens have become increasingly alarmed about the backsliding of fundamental European values. This has led to a series of policy measures designed to halt and reverse the trend. In 2020, the European Commission adopted a new annual rule of law review cycle - and in a separate process, structural funds have been withheld as a result of its negative rule of law assessments. 

With the rule of law becoming an issue of sanctions and hard political controversy, the situation of the rule of law in EU member states should be correctly and exhaustively understood. A missing piece in this puzzle of rule of law shortcomings is the non-implementation of judgments of two key European courts: the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

The non-implementation of judgments of the European Courts has become a systemic problem. 37.5% of the leading judgments of the European Court of Human Rights relating to EU states from the last ten years have not been implemented. Each of these judgments represents a significant or structural problem, often with direct consequences for many citizens. And yet, authorities have not implemented them.    

At the same time, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is facing increasing contestation. Non-implementation of CJEU judgments is a recurring phenomenon with the EU Member States ignoring CJEU’s judgements since its inception. Yet, the resistance against the Luxembourg-based court has increased in recent years, with courts and governments in EU Member States openly challenging the top body of the EU’s judiciary. 

The EU’s response to the rise of democratic and rule of law backsliding is at an important stage of development. This is a key time to ensure that it is as effective as possible. We hope that this report will help put the implementation of European Courts’ judgments firmly inside the EU’s rule of law agenda, to be seen as an essential requirement of all European states. 

Joint Publication Event: Non-Implementation of European Court Judgments and the Rule of Law

On Tuesday, 19 April at 11 am, the European Implementation Network (EIN) and Democracy Reporting International (DRI) will publish a joint report on the Non-Implementation of European Court Judgments and the Rule of Law. We will be launching the publication with a live online panel discussion event. You can register for our launch event here.

The panel will focus on the non-implementation of European court judgements, the impact on the rule of law in the EU, and possible solutions for the problem within the EU’s rule of law review cycle. The panellists include: Mr Florian Geyer, Head of Unit, Justice policy and rule of law, European Commission, Ms Sophia in ’t Veld MEP (Renew/The Netherlands), and Mr Christophe Poirel, Director of Human Rights, Council of Europe. Mr George Stafford, Director of EIN, will present the report - and the debate will be moderated by Mr Jakub Jaraczewski, Research Coordinator Rule of Law, DRI. 

Over the last few years, the governments, media and even citizens have become aware of the backsliding of fundamental European values in various countries. The European Union (EU) has adopted a series of policy measures designed to halt and reverse the trend. In 2020, the European Commission adopted a new annual rule of law review cycle. The EU institutions also introduced targeted measures, such as withholding structural funds from countries with severe infringements of the rule of law.

While targeted measures make sense for the extreme cases where governments destroy institutions of the rule of law in a systematic manner, we believe that the annual rule of law review cycle should also capture longer-term problems with the rule of law across all Member States, such as the non-implementation of judgments of two key European courts – the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereafter, “the European Courts”).

The non-implementation of European Court judgments has become a systemic problem. 37.5% of the leading ECtHR judgments from the last ten years concerning EU countries have not been implemented. Each of these represents a significant or structural problem, often with direct consequences for many citizens. The non-implementation of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgments is also a recurring issue. In recent years, resistance against the Luxembourg-based court has increased, with courts and governments in the EU Member States openly challenging it.

The EU’s response to rule of law challenges is at a crucial moment. We hope that this report will help put the implementation of European Court judgments firmly inside the EU’s rule of law agenda.

EIN Training for Turkish Lawyers

Last week EIN held an in-person training session on effective advocacy for the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, for the Media and Law Studies Association, as well as senior lawyers from various Bar Associations in Turkey. This training was held at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg on 25 March.

The training allowed participants to learn more about the work of EIN, gain a deeper understanding of the implementation process, and understand how best to engage in it.

We thank MLSA and Freedom House for co-organising this training and all the participants for attending. We look forward to reading your submissions in the future. 

More Info on MLSA and their trip to Strasbourg here.

Resources:

EIN Publications: https://www.einnetwork.org/ein-publications 

EIN Handbooks: https://www.einnetwork.org/ein-handbooks 

Join EIN: https://www.einnetwork.org/partners

Be sure to email us for more information on our training: contact@einnetwork.org.

Photo Credit: EIN