An action plan to increase France’s justice budget and halve the time required for civil proceedings was unveiled by Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti on Thursday, as the country’s justice system ranks poorly among its EU neighbours.
Dupont-Moretti’s plan draws on some 50,000 consultations that branded the French justice system “too slow” and “too complex”.
“Justice has been the subject of more than thirty years of political, budgetary and human abandonment,” said Dupond-Moretti in his speech, announcing that the budget will increase from €9.6 to €11 billion in 2027.
According to a report issued in October by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), France spends €72.53 per year, per capita on its judicial system (excluding penitentiary infrastructures), far behind Germany (€140.73), Austria (€137.99) or Sweden (€127.71). Although France is above the median (€64.5), it is below the average, which is €78.
The justice minister also expressed his will to halve the time required for civil proceedings by the end of Macron’s second term.
“My objective is that, at the end of the five-year term, the time limits for civil proceedings should be divided by two on average,” Dupond-Moretti said, advocating for a “radical change of framework.”
To that end, he announced the launch of a “policy of amicable settlement,” introduced to “promote participatory justice” and inspired by the one existing in Canada’s French-speaking Quebec region. According to him, this procedure “allows the judge to help the parties, with their lawyers, to find an agreement” and thus confers on him the role of “conciliator.”
In France, the time required for civil proceedings is much longer than in other EU countries. On average, a case is resolved in 637 days in the first instance for a civil procedure, against 237 days in the rest of Europe. For appeals, the average is 607 days in France, compared to 177 days for the rest of Europe.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
