📋 Tender Overview
At today's meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, the European Commission presented the 12th EU Justice Scoreboard, which maintains the general structure of previous editions and contains data on the efficiency, quality and independence of the national justice systems of the European Union countries. In this respect, this edition presents updated data on historical indicators, such as the length of court proceedings, the degree of digitalisation of justice and the perception of judicial independence in the public and in the economy or business. This year's Scoreboard also includes new indicators, such as access to justice for children in both civil and criminal proceedings.
The review shows that Slovenia is committed to improving the efficiency of its justice system, especially when dealing with complex civil and commercial cases. It should be noted that Slovenia is high on the scale in terms of civil and administrative matters, as it occupies the third place, while at the same time Slovenia is ranked fourth in the indicator for the expected time of resolving a case. The data show that the time to conduct a hearing at the first instance is longer than in most other countries and we are in the second part of the scale. An even more noticeable gap can be seen between the decisions of the various instances in the Administrative Court, but the number of resolved administrative cases is rising again after the fall in 2021. The Ministry welcomes this trend and adds that the key solutions to the amendment to the Administrative Dispute Act, which was adopted by the National Assembly last year, are aimed at more efficient and faster resolution of these cases before both the Administrative Court and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia. Slovenia also ranks in the top half of countries (tenth) in terms of alternative dispute resolution. That is certainly welcome - given the large number of cases involved. In particular, the duration of court proceedings in the field of corruption represents an additional challenge, as of all EU countries, such proceedings take the longest in Slovenia and a trend of prolongation of proceedings is detectable. Meanwhile, court proceedings in the field of money laundering are getting shorter, but Slovenia is also one of the Member States at the bottom of the scale in this segment.
Slovenia's high ranking in the area of collective protection of consumer rights is encouraging, which shows Slovenia's recognised efforts to regulate this area even before the adoption of the Directive on representative actions. With the adoption of the amendment to the Collective Actions Act in December 2023, the scope of collective protection of consumer rights has been further expanded in the light of the implementation of the Representative Actions Directive.
Access to justice remains a key priority for Slovenia. We strive to maintain accessibility through a variety of measures, including free legal aid and reasonable court costs. Nevertheless, high court costs remain an obstacle for people living below the poverty line. Increased investment in judicial infrastructure, both physical and technical, and an emphasis on the training of judges further contribute to improving the quality of the justice system. Slovenia has introduced digital solutions to improve access to judicial information and simplify case management. However, despite progress, there is still room for improvement in the full use of digital tools in all judicial proceedings. Slovenia ranks mostly in the bottom half of the Member States in terms of the use of digital technologies, especially in terms of doing business with customers. The Ministry welcomes and is working closely with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, which has already directed further information upgrades in the direction of wider possibilities of electronic filing of client documents. In addition to the enforcement, land registry and insolvency proceedings, where the court has been conducting comprehensive electronic business with the parties for many years, the Minister has already issued an order in January 2024 allowing parties to submit their applications, documents and documents electronically in certain civil proceedings.
Last week, the Minister also issued an order that from June 17, 2024, in proceedings in which the law allows for admissible revision under the rules of the law governing civil procedure, an application for leave of revision can be filed electronically. As a result, the parties will be able to submit applications for leave of revision in civil proceedings, proceedings before the administrative court and also in proceedings pending before the labour and social court (also) in electronic form.
Slovenia is therefore aware of the importance of digitalisation and is striving for further development in this area. Within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RR), in cooperation with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the procurement of videoconferencing and related audio-video equipment is planned to facilitate the conduct of court proceedings. The Ministry also plans to develop an IT solution to support the process of document verification at the Ministry, which means the establishment of a register of scanned notarial signatures and the provision of authentication of electronic documents with an Apostille stamp. For the needs of the State Prosecutor's Office, a smart information tool will be established that will enable state prosecutors to make simple and quick decisions, and there are also plans to establish a green meeting room system for the operations of the Prosecutor's Office, which includes e-communication, remote work, equipping meeting rooms at the State Prosecutor's Office with videoconferencing systems, purchasing equipment for employees and a software tool for monitoring remote work.
