EU citizens' opinion on vested interests' pressure on justice system 2022

The countries within the European Union where citizens report the highest level of concern with economic or other vested interests exerting influence on their country's justice system are Croatia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria, three of the newest EU member states. In general there is a trend towards the post-communist countries who have joined the EU since 2004 having higher levels of distrust in the judiciary and justice system, with Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain, and Greece also showing higher levels of distrust.

Share of EU citizens who highlight interference or pressure from economic or other interests as the reason for lack of trust in the their country's justice system in 2022

Characteristic	Very much	Somewhat	Don't know/No Answer	Not really	Not at all
Croatia	34.8%	26.7%	27.7%	5.6%	5.2%
Slovakia	33%	20.8%	36%	4.5%	5.7%
Bulgaria	30.8%	13%	47.2%	4.2%	4.7%
Poland	22.3%	20.9%	42%	11.6%	3.2%
Portugal	28.8%	10.3%	58%	2.4%	0.5%
Spain	25.7%	13.1%	48.2%	8.5%	4.5%
Greece	22.8%	14.2%	57.4%	3.3%	2.3%
Slovenia	21%	15.2%	59.8%	2.2%	1.7%
Italy	16.1%	18.4%	52%	10.6%	2.9%
Cyrpus	22.9%	10.7%	62.5%	1.2%	2.7%
Latvia	20.1%	12.5%	64.6%	2.3%	0.6%
Hungary	17.4%	10.9%	65.9%	3.4%	2.5%
Czechia	15.1%	11.5%	66.4%	4.4%	2.7%
Romania	17.4%	8.5%	63.2%	4.3%	6.6%
EU Average	13.9%	10.7%	66.7%	5.5%	3.1%
Lithuania	13.5%	9.2%	72.9%	2.3%	2%
Belgium	11.5%	9.2%	70.8%	3.8%	4.6%
France	10.5%	8.1%	72.8%	6.1%	2.5%
Malta	9.7%	8.6%	72.9%	6.4%	2.4%
Estonia	5.3%	8.1%	84.1%	1.6%	0.9%
Ireland	5%	6.8%	83.3%	2.8%	2.1%
Netherlands	6.2%	4%	86.5%	2.1%	1.2%
Sweden	2%	7.3%	85.3%	3.2%	2.2%
Austria	4.7%	3.5%	90%	0.7%	1.2%
Germany	2.8%	3.7%	88.9%	1.4%	3.2%
Luxembourg	3.9%	1.9%	92.3%	1%	0.9%
Finland	1.2%	4%	92.2%	1.2%	1.3%
Denmark	1.4%	3%	92.7%	1.2%	1.6%

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Release date

May 2022

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Region

Europe, EU

Survey time period

17th-24th January 2022

Number of respondents

25,767 respondents

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

Original question: "Could you tell me to what extent each of the following reasons explains your rating of the independence of the justice system in (THIS COUNTRY): Interference or pressure from economic or other specific interests".

This sample includes all survey respondents, not just those with a negative view of their country's judiciary. Respondents who answered that they have a positive view of their country's judicial system are likely to not answer the question, hence why there is a large proportion of the sample in the 'Don't know/no answer' category.

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