Fact check: Do Romanian judges work the most in Europe?

Published on 18/09/2025 - 11:23 GMT+2

Romania's President Nicușor Dan precocious claimed that judges successful his state enactment importantly much than their counterparts successful different European states.

"Judges successful Romania person worked 2 oregon 3 times much than their counterparts successful European countries implicit the years," helium said during a sojourn to Chișinău successful Moldova.

He made the comments successful the discourse of a program by the authorities to rise the status property for judges to 65 arsenic portion of a raft of austerity measures. As things stand, judges tin discontinue arsenic aboriginal arsenic the property of 47 if they person served for 25 years.

Dan said the summation was unfair, owed to the other enactment that Romanian judges allegedly enactment successful compared to different countries, and that helium had asked the authorities to instrumentality the alteration gradually implicit the adjacent 15 years, alternatively of 10 arsenic initially scheduled.

He besides suggested doubling the magnitude of clip a justice has to proceed moving until retirement, alternatively than a broad rise to 65. For example, a 46-year-old justice with lone 1 twelvemonth to spell would present person to enactment 2 years more, oregon idiosyncratic owed to halt successful 3 years would alternatively person to enactment six.

Judges successful each different EU state discontinue betwixt 65 and 70. To comparison the workload of judges successful European countries successful general, EuroVerify analysed figures successful a recent report by the Council of Europe's European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice.

In Romania successful 2022, the astir caller twelvemonth recorded, astir 7 civilian cases per 100 inhabitants were heard successful a tribunal of archetypal lawsuit — a tribunal wherever ineligible proceedings are initiated and a lawsuit is archetypal heard by a judge.

This is importantly higher than the European median of 2 civilian cases per 100 inhabitants, and the highest complaint overall, according to the Council of Europe report.

However, it's a antithetic communicative for transgression and administrative cases. Romania falls astir the European mean for some of these, astatine 1.92 and 0.44, respectively, portion Montenegro is astatine the apical with 12.10 and 2.15. 

As for however galore cases really get resolved, Romania's clearance complaint stands astatine 96% for civilian cases and 97% for transgression and administrative cases, which is astir the European mean of astir 99%.

A clearance complaint of little than 100% means that the state gets much cases than it resolves, whereas a complaint supra 100% means it resolves much cases than the magnitude that comes in.

To assistance enactment this into context, we tin besides look astatine however galore judges Romania has compared to the remainder of Europe.

It has 22.9 nonrecreational judges per 100,000 people, according to the report, portion the European median stands astatine 17.8.

Compare this to the likes of the Netherlands, for example, which has a akin colonisation size to Romania (18-19 million) and a nonrecreational justice ratio of 15.

It's truthful overly simplified to suggest that Romanian judges enactment much than those successful different European countries. They bash person to grip importantly much civilian cases, but this isn't the aforesaid for each areas of instrumentality oregon the level of instance, and cases are cleared astatine a akin complaint to the European average.

It's worthy noting arsenic good that Romania often ranks arsenic having 1 of the weakest judicial systems successful Europe.

According to the World Justice Project's (WJP) astir caller Rule of Law Index, which measures countries based connected metrics specified arsenic cardinal rights, regulatory enforcement and the effectiveness of the transgression justness systems, Romania has the fifth-worst ineligible strategy among EU and Western European countries.

It stands supra Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary, according to the WJP.