Filenews 13 September 2021 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
The complete lack of digitalisation in the field of Justice and the long delays in the adjudication of cases, are the two major problems highlighted by the European Commission, in its analysis of the recently submitted recovery and resilience plan for Cyprus.
At the same time, the Commission sees an improvement in the picture of corruption, but the percentage it believes has spread across the country remains very high.
According to the Commission's analysis of the Justice sector, the justice system suffers from an almost complete lack of digitalisation, and very little information on the justice system is publicly available. It is also stressed that no electronic information on the progress of cases is provided, nor is there an electronic case management system. This issue was also highlighted in the Commission's 2020 rule of law report – chapter on the state of the rule of law in Cyprus – issued on 30 September 2020. As the Commission notes, the introduction of an electronic management system in the courts is one of the main objectives of the 14 ongoing reforms.
However, its implementation and related public procurement procedures have been delayed since 2017. The report also states that the introduction of modern rules of civil procedure is also long overdue. Based on the findings of the 2021 EU Justice Scoreboard (its publication is imminent) the time taken to hear civil, commercial and administrative cases in courts of first instance (882 days in 2019, compared to 737 days in 2018) is still among the highest in the EU. In administrative justice, the length of proceedings at first instance increased (495 days in 2019 versus 487 days in 2018) and processing rates decreased (around 170% in 2019 versus about 219% in 2018).
Now, as regards the perception of corruption in Cyprus, the Commission notes that it remains high in the business context. Global governance indicators and other indicators show a decline in Cyprus' performance in terms of corruption control (WGI, 2019, TI, 2019).
