EU citizens' opinion on judicial independence 2022

Croatia is the only EU member state where a majority of respondents have indicated that the status of judges in their country does not guarantee their independence and that this is a cause for them to distrust their domestic justice system. EU citizens in Poland and Slovakia also show high levels of distrust in the independence of their judiciaries, although not making up a majority of respondents. Denmark, Luxembourg, and Finland show the lowest levels of respondents indicating that they do not believe their judiciaries are independent.

Share of EU citizens who highlight that the status and position of judges does not guarantee their independence as the reason for lack of trust in the their country's justice system in 2022

Characteristic	Very much	Somewhat	Don't know/No Answer	Not really	Not at all
Croatia	22.6%	28.2%	29.4%	9.2%	10.5%
Poland	29.6%	17.6%	39.3%	8.3%	5.3%
Slovakia	22.5%	23.4%	36.8%	8.4%	8.9%
Bulgaria	20.1%	16.2%	48.8%	7.3%	7.7%
Portugal	12.6%	20.9%	60%	2.9%	3.6%
Spain	18.4%	13.7%	49.1%	10.2%	8.6%
Slovenia	12.2%	16.5%	60.1%	4.2%	7.1%
Greece	9.7%	18.4%	58.5%	7.4%	6%
Italy	8%	19.5%	52.8%	13.8%	5.8%
Latvia	13%	13.6%	64.9%	5.3%	3.2%
Hungary	11.9%	12%	66.4%	6.5%	3.2%
Cyrpus	10.5%	13.3%	65.8%	5.2%	5.2%
Czechia	8.8%	13%	66.9%	5.9%	5.4%
EU Average	10.1%	11.6%	67%	6.6%	4.6%
Lithuania	7.5%	11.5%	75.4%	2.8%	2.8%
Romania	6.7%	11.7%	64.1%	8.1%	9.4%
France	8.7%	9.5%	72.2%	6.1%	3.5%
Belgium	6.8%	10.5%	71.3%	7.5%	4%
Malta	8.3%	8.3%	71.8%	7%	4.6%
Estonia	5%	7.6%	84.5%	1.4%	1.5%
Ireland	4.1%	6.9%	83.1%	4.2%	1.7%
Netherlands	4.3%	6%	86.2%	1.3%	2.2%
Sweden	1.9%	8.2%	86.1%	2%	1.8%
Austria	2.3%	4.2%	90.8%	1.6%	1.1%
Germany	2.4%	3.4%	89.7%	2.2%	2.3%
Finland	1.2%	3.6%	92.4%	1.7%	1%
Luxembourg	2.1%	2.8%	92%	1.6%	1.6%
Denmark	1.5%	2.6%	93.2%	1.3%	1.4%

Loading statistic...

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

May 2022

More information

Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

January 17 to January 24, 2022

Number of respondents

25,767 respondents

Supplementary notes

Original question: "Could you tell me to what extent each of the following reasons explains your rating of the independence of the justice system in (THIS COUNTRY): The status and position of judges do not sufficiently guarantee their independence".

This sample includes all survey respondents, not just those with a negative view of their country's judiciary. Respondents who answered that they have a positive view of their country's judicial system are likely to not answer the question, hence why there is a large proportion of the sample in the 'Don't know/no answer' category.

Citation formats