Rule of Law in the EU: citizens' rating of the independence of courts and judges 2022

Published by Statista Research Department, Sep 2, 2024

European Union citizens' perceptions of the independence of courts and the judiciary in their home country are clearly divided between older and wealthier member states mostly in the north and west of the EU, and the newer member states in the south and east of the union, with a few notable exceptions. The countries with the highest level of trust in the judicial system are Finland, Denmark, and Austria. This is perhaps unsurprising, as these countries often lead rankings and indexes for their high quality of governance and the rule of law.

On the other hand, Croatia, Poland, and Slovakia come at the other end, with between 65-75 percent of their citizens having a negative view of the courts and judiciaries. These post-communist countries are still struggling with the legacy of tight political control of the judicial system under communism, and in cases such as Poland have seen a renewed attempt by right-wing governments to curb judicial independence and oversight.

The post-communist country with the greatest trust in the justice system, Estonia, has recorded almost 60 percent of its citizens with positive impressions, a notable success for a country which was a part of the Soviet Union until 1990. Spain and Italy rank as the lowest member states which had joined the EU before 2004, highlighting these countries' ongoing struggles with corruption.

EU citizens' rating of the justice system in their home country in terms of the independence of courts and judges in 2022, by country

Characteristic	Very good	Fairly good	Don't know/no answer	Fairly bad	Very bad
Finland	28.5%	59.6%	3.9%	6.5%	1.5%
Denmark	41.6%	42.2%	7.8%	6.3%	2.1%
Austria	24.1%	58.6%	7%	7.5%	2.8%
Luxembourg	14.8%	62.6%	14.1%	5.8%	2.7%
Netherlands	23.5%	53.4%	8.7%	10.3%	4.1%
Germany	26.2%	49.6%	12.7%	7.9%	3.6%
Sweden	23.8%	50.3%	9.5%	12.6%	3.7%
Ireland	16.9%	56.3%	9.1%	14.2%	3.5%
Malta	19.6%	47.3%	4.1%	20.2%	8.8%
Belgium	8.7%	51.4%	9%	23%	7.9%
Estonia	10.6%	49.2%	22.6%	14.2%	3.3%
Czechia	5.2%	51.6%	8.7%	26%	8.4%
France	4.1%	51.5%	15.2%	20.5%	8.7%
Latvia	2.7%	50.3%	10.5%	28.3%	8.2%
Greece	6.3%	46.3%	4%	27.5%	15.9%
Lithuania	2.7%	49.5%	19.5%	21.4%	6.9%
Cyprus	6%	44.1%	11.9%	25.1%	12.9%
Slovenia	4.2%	45.2%	7.9%	27.5%	15.2%
Romania	5.7%	42.5%	13.1%	24.2%	14.5%
Portugal	6.7%	40.5%	9.6%	36.5%	6.7%
Hungary	7.7%	35.4%	21.2%	23.8%	11.9%
Spain	4.2%	33.9%	8.7%	35.2%	18%
Italy	3.1%	33.8%	13.1%	34.3%	15.7%
Bulgaria	3%	28%	12.7%	29.9%	26.4%
Slovakia	1.3%	23.6%	7.8%	45.7%	21.5%
Poland	2.9%	21.3%	11.8%	34.2%	29.8%
Croatia	5.4%	15.1%	4.8%	38.4%	36.3%