This data has been released by the European Commission in the 2022 EU Justice Scoreboard, a document that provides comparative data between Member States on the efficiency, quality and independence of justice systems.

One of the areas evaluated is the efficiency of the courts in the EU, namely with regard to the duration of proceedings.

Portugal ranks 10th in the EU countries with the longest delays in courts in civil and commercial cases (about 300 days), among the Member States for which data are available, with Italy being the country with the longest time (more double that of Portuguese), followed by Hungary, France, Greece, Malta, Spain, Slovenia, Poland and Finland.

The duration of the process refers to the estimated time (in days) required to resolve a case in court, that is, to reach a decision in the first instance. In the case of Portugal, this indicator on the assessment of civil and commercial cases rose in 2020 after having dropped in 2019 to close to 200 days.

According to the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, this is “an analysis tool highly appreciated by the justice community in Europe”, as it allows “to identify both opportunities for improvement and to address risks to justice systems”.