In the annual EU Justice Scoreboard overview, Slovenia faces serious challenges in tackling corruption in the judiciary. Despite an above-average number of judges, court proceedings for corruption and money laundering cases remain among the slowest in the European Union.
The EU Justice Scoreboard 2025 and previous reports – produced by the European Commission since 2013 – provide detailed information on the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems in Member States of the European Union, including Slovenia. In addition to the problem highlighted in the introduction, political influence and perceptions of corruption in the judiciary continue to raise concerns, which, for the first time this year, put Slovenia on the list of countries of concern in relation to the rule of law. Further reforms are needed to improve the situation, including increased digitisation, specialisation of courts and strengthening judicial independence, according to the report.
Slowness of proceedings
The report highlights Slovenian courts as among the slowest in the EU to deal with corruption and money laundering cases. This is confirmed by older reports such as the EU Justice Scoreboard 2023, which states that first instance proceedings in bribery-related criminal cases in Slovenia are among the longest in the EU. In some Member States, such proceedings are completed in around one year, while in Slovenia, they can take up to four years or more. On average, first instance money laundering proceedings are concluded after around 800 days, while first instance corruption proceedings are concluded after around 500 days. It should be noted that the report only follows the procedure up to the end of the first stage. The problem with Slovenian judiciary is also, of course, the further instance courts, which are too slow in reaching their decisions and at the same time do not take responsibility for their rulings – instead of deciding on the merits of a certain case, which they have all the power to do, they end up overturning the judgments and sending them back to the lower instance courts. This, of course, is how the higher courts wash their hands of any responsibility, but it also prevents justice from being done in time – retrials are often time-barred before the real substantive judgment is given.
Court backlogs
When it comes to the number of judges per capita, Slovenia is well above the European average. At around 41.5 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, it is the second highest in the European Union – after Luxembourg, and yet some trials are unreasonably long. And where are the causes of this inefficiency? According to the report, the reasons for the slowness include a lack of specialised judicial departments for corruption cases, complex procedures and a lack of sufficient resources to process complex cases, such as money laundering or high-level corruption, quickly. The amount of taxpayers’ money spent on the judiciary is also above average. In fact, in 2022, Slovenia spent 107.1 euros per capita on the judiciary. The European average is considerably lower at 85.4 euros. We therefore spend 0.38 percent of GDP on the judiciary, well above the European average (0.31 percent).
The rule of law and access to the judiciary
This year, Slovenia was also listed for the first time as a country of concern in terms of the rule of law, partly due to concerns about political influence on the judiciary and the ineffective handling of corruption. The EU Justice Scoreboard and the related Rule of Law Reports recommend that Slovenia continue implementing reforms to improve the independence of the judiciary, speed up proceedings in corruption cases and strengthen the functioning of specialised anti-corruption bodies. Additionally, Slovenia is one of six EU Member States (along with Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland) where legal aid recipients are not automatically exempted from paying court fees. This may limit access to the judiciary, in particular for individuals who wish to report corruption or participate in related proceedings. The report adds that Slovenia does not have sufficiently developed mechanisms to support individuals who are exposed to corruption or discrimination, which further complicates the fight against corruption at a systemic level.
Judicial independence and perceptions of corruption
The EU Justice Scoreboard 2024 and 2025 conclude that public and business perceptions of the independence of the Slovenian judiciary have improved in recent years, which is a positive trend. However, older reports (for example, the 2021 report) have highlighted Slovenia as one of the countries where the public and businesses perceive a lack of independence due to perceived political pressures or the influence of economic interests. In 2021, Slovenia ranked among the countries with the lowest perceived independence, together with countries such as Croatia, Slovakia and Poland. Apparently, reports often cite interference or pressure from government and politicians (highlighted by 68 percent of respondents in Slovenia in 2019) and pressure from economic or other specific interests (highlighted by 62 percent of respondents in 2019) as reasons for perceived lack of independence in the past.
Not just backlogs, unfair trials are also a problem
Apart from the backlog of cases, the biggest problem of the Slovenian judiciary is also the quality of the trials, or the injustices that are done in court. Let us recall that in April this year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published data showing that out of the 373 Slovenian cases it has ruled on since Slovenia gained its independence until 2021, it found at least one human rights violation in 342 cases. This is truly worrying data, as almost 92 percent of the judgments of Slovenian courts that have tried their own citizens have violated human rights, and we are in the very top of the European Union in this respect. In other words, Slovenia has the worst courts in Europe. Even in relation to the number of judgments with at least one human rights violation per million inhabitants, Slovenia is just below the top, with 164.51 judgments. A look towards the countries with the best-performing judiciaries is particularly meaningful. Germany is a case in point. It had only 2.4 judgments per million inhabitants in which the ECHR found human rights violations. With a population of 83 million, there were fewer cases sent to the ECHR from Germany than from Slovenia, and even of those that were sent, the court found that only in 55.9 percent of cases the judgment violated human rights.
Digitisation and the impact on corruption proceedings
Slovenia has made progress in digitising its judicial systems in recent years, which has helped to keep the courts functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU Justice Scoreboard 2024, however, found that there is still room for improvement, in particular in the use of electronic case management systems and automated case allocation, which could speed up the handling of corruption cases. Slovenia has not yet fully implemented advanced digital tools, such as electronic case tracking systems or secure remote working for judges, which could increase the efficiency and transparency of the handling of corruption cases.
Anamarija Novak
