The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), which operates under the auspices of the Council of Europe, was set up to strengthen the quality and efficiency of European justice systems. Its task is to analyse the progress made by judicial systems, identify difficulties and put forward proposals to overcome them, while providing support to the Member States.
To this end, since 2004, the CEPEJ has produced a biennial evaluation report that presents the judicial systems of the Member States of the Council of Europe in two parts – a comprehensive analysis with statistics and tables, and country profiles with country-specific data – allowing for a comparison and in-depth study of each country or group of countries or periods.
On 16 October 2024, the CEPEJ published its evaluation report (based on 2022 data) for the current evaluation cycle of 2024.
The efficiency of the courts’ work is determined by two indicators: the clearance rate and the disposition time. The data for Hungary are positive for both indicators: Hungarian courts perform close to or above the Council of Europe median in terms of the clearance rate, and in respect of the length of proceedings, they perform above the Council of Europe average at all three instances. As far as the disposition time is concerned, the efficiency rate is the highest at the courts of second instance among all instances, and of the different fields of law, it is the highest in the area of administrative justice. It is interesting to note that it was in Hungary where the shortest disposition time in the area of administrative justice (0 days) was recorded among the countries under examination.
In terms of the use of financial resources for the justice system, the report notes as a positive aspect that, unlike in most countries, online and hybrid training sessions are still part of the training system in Hungary after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributes to the reduction of training costs.
With regard to access to justice, the document praises Hungary in two respects. According to the report, Hungary is one of five countries where, given the country’s less wealthy status, spending on child-friendly justice suggests a strong commitment to protecting minors in judicial proceedings. In addition, Hungary is one of only three countries where the possibility to testify by remote hearing is also open on the grounds of disability, age or illness, and belongs to those countries where an interpreter (sign language interpreter) or translator is available for persons with such disabilities or who do not speak the language of the court.
The CEPEJ expresses the degree of digitalisation of the judiciary by means of the so-called ICT deployment index, which shows the extent to which each country is equipped with information and communication technology (ICT) tools and the level of the actual use of such tools. Hungary has the highest aggregate ICT index in Europe in terms of the supply of ICT tools, and is also in the top 10% broken down by each field of law. However, the actual use of the available ICT tools, although above the Council of Europe average and median, could be further increased.
Budapest, 21 October 2024
The Communications Department of the Curia of Hungary