European Commission highlights progress in Spain on guaranteeing independence, efficiency and quality of Spanish justice system

Spain posted better results than in previous years in terms of accessibility to its judicial system. The country stands among the leaders in terms of electronic communication between professionals and the people: telematic information on the characteristics of the Spanish judicial system, online availability of rulings, online filing of legal claims and other documents to judges, as well as the telematic transmission of citations and the availability of new technology systems in court management.

Spain posted the highest possible score in terms of communication with the parties, as well as communication with the press. Furthermore, the country scored well in terms of offering information to interested parties on the progress of their cases.

Spain also scored highly in terms of free legal aid, reflected in the fact that even people with incomes over the poverty threshold set by Eurostat can access this service.

In terms of efficiency in judicial systems, Spain has continued to reduce its judicial response times year after year. In this regard, Spain has made special improvements on administrative affairs, in particular those related to intellectual property offences - where the duration of legal action is among the shortest in the EU - and court action on consumer protection.

The report also reflects an increased presence of women in Spanish courts of first instance, standing at 60%, although this presence falls to 34% in second instance courts and to just above 10% in the Supreme Court. The latter percentages will gradually increase as the high number of women judges that currently work at intermediate levels rise to higher positions. Furthermore, Spain is one of the EU Member States with the largest number of lawyers per 100,000 inhabitants.

The European Commission also highlights the objective measures adopted by Spain to safeguard and guarantee the independence of the Spanish justice system: existence of legal guarantees, the disciplinary regime, judge tenures, and court organisation and management. According to the indicator in the World Economic Forum perception survey, Spain has improved in terms of the subjective perception of independence of its justice system by the public and by companies. At any event, it should be noted that the use of subjective surveys has been highly contested in Brussels by various Member States for some time.

Finally, it should be stressed that certain indicators were unable to reflect progress by Spain in 2016 when compared with previous years because this progress is measured by the legislative reforms put in place, which, in Spain's case, have not been possible due to the caretaker status of the government for most of the year and the corresponding inability to undertake any legislative actions.