Rule of law in Slovenia

2.5.2016

Question for oral answer O-000076/2016
to the Commission
Rule 128
Esteban González Pons, Milan Zver, on behalf of the PPE Group

According to European Court of Human Rights statistics, Slovenia ranks first for the number of violations per capita of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). With 148 violations per million people, Slovenia has the highest rate of human rights violations among all 47 Council of Europe member countries. Slovenia lost 94 % of its cases, which is the same rate as Russia. World Bank statistics show that Slovenia’s court system also fails in resolving commercial disputes. On average, Slovenia’s courts take 1 160 days to settle a commercial dispute, more than thrice the wait in Germany and France. The Commission has repeatedly stated that the Slovenian judicial system is unsatisfactory. The poor state of the unreformed Slovenian judiciary is also reflected in Slovenian citizens’ distrust of their national justice system. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey on justice in the EU, only 24 % of Slovenian citizens trust their national justice system, which is the lowest level of trust among all the Member States.

Slovenia never thoroughly reformed its justice system when it emerged from the communist regime in 1991, resulting in the violation of thousands of citizens’ human rights by the country’s justice system, and the persecution of independent journalists and the political opposition. The most public evidence demonstrating the state of the Slovenian judiciary is the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the opposition leader Janez Janša in the scandalous Patria trial, which was unanimously overruled by the Constitutional Court as a violation of the most basic human rights, including the right to a fair and impartial trial as guaranteed by the ECHR, and the right not to be convicted of a ‘criminal act’ that does not exist as such.

The Commission has so far not taken any action with regard to flagrant human rights violations in Member States. It is now evident that Slovenia needs assistance on its path to the rule of law.

1. Is the Commission monitoring the situation of the Slovenian judiciary? If so, what measures does it intend to take to address this worrying situation?

2. The Commission recently launched a preliminary assessment of systematic threats to the rule of law in Poland. Given that, according to the European Court of Human Rights statistics, the situation of the judiciary is much better in Poland than in Slovenia, does the Commission intend to apply the rule of law mechanism in respect of Slovenia?