Monitoring the EU accession process: Judicial capacity

This overview assesses the state of judicial capacity in ten Central and Eastern European countries seeking full EU membership: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The paper includes country reports as well as generally applicable recommendations to the accession candidates and the EU.

The authors conclude that judicial infrastructures in the EU candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe cannot yet guarantee a consistently independent, competent and accountable judicial process. One interesting trend that has emerged is that in countries that have afforded their judiciaries extensive autonomy, including in Hungary and Lithuania, the main concern currently is the risk of an insufficiently accountable, insular judiciary. In other countries, however, including Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania, judicial independence remains in danger as the executive continues to exercise excessive influence over the administration of the judiciary.

Notwithstanding the progress EU candidate countries have achieved in recent years with EU guidance, the impact of the EU accession process has been limited due to the absence of clear EU judiciary standards and the often uncoordinated and ineffective expert support system. In the interests of both accession candidates and current Member States, the EU should identify the common EU minimums to be fulfilled and consider introducing monitoring in all Member States.