“The effectiveness of the Portuguese justice system remains a challenge, especially for the administrative and tax courts”, the report says, in the chapter on Portugal in the European Union’s 2021 Rule of Law Annual Report prepared by the European Commission.
Portugal continues to register, the document adds, “Improving the efficiency of the justice system, in particular in civil and commercial cases, in which the time for consideration of cases in the first instance is constantly decreasing”… Although, …
However, the community leader believes that The Portuguese government “is taking steps to address this problem, in particular by strengthening administrative arbitration centers and setting up rapid response teams”, as well as “addressing the problem of human resource shortages and investing in digitization.”…
Registered since last year, “An increase in human resources devoted to the justice system, but problems persist”… Although the “procedures for the recruitment of 40 judges and 65 prosecutors” have already begun, there is still a “significant shortage of judges and prosecutors”, especially in the tax and administrative courts. in which the total number of first instance judges “Remains well below the level established in the legal framework, with more than 13 percent of vacancies remaining unfilled.”
With regard to digitization, the European Commission emphasizes that “measures continue to be taken to improve the quality of the justice system”, having The budget for information and communications technology in the justice system increased by 23.4 percent in 2021.… Moreover, there is a “fund dedicated to projects to modernize the justice system”…
According to the European Commissioner of Justice, “There is a lot of investment in the digitization of the judicial system, and we see this in the recovery plans.”… Even while acknowledging the progress in Portugal, Didier Reinders admits that “There are still elements in which we have not yet observed a positive evolution”…
The report also states that, “Following repeated concerns about the distribution of cases in the courts, the Magistracy Council is taking steps to improve case management through greater transparency in the distribution system.”, and initiatives are underway to strengthen judicial integrity., “in particular through the development of codes of conduct for magistrates.”
“Hierarchical relations within the prosecutor’s office continue to be discussed, and this issue is being analyzed in the Supreme Administrative Court”, promotes the commission. “We are discussing reforms in criminal proceedings that will allow more timely consideration of complex cases. It is important that these issues are addressed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders and taking into account European standards. ”…
The document also states that, as stated in the 2020 report, allegations of “interference with the random assignment of cases in the courts prompted the High Council to investigate possible violations.”… But in July 2020, according to the results of the investigation of “cases of manual distribution of cases in higher courts from 2017 to 2020, The Supreme Council found no evidence of an unjustified manual assignment and closed the investigation without disciplinary action. “…
Published on Tuesday, the report assesses the developments since last September, deepens the analysis of the issues identified in the previous report (the first ever produced by the European Commission) and looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Resource scarcity affects anti-corruption strategy
The European Commission considers that there were no “major changes in the institutional system of anti-corruption in Portugal” from last year’s report. The Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2024 was approved by the government of Antonio Costa and is currently awaiting a vote in the Assembly of the Republic. This measure aims to “meet the long-standing need for a robust anti-corruption system.”
The government has also proposed other measures to ensure more effective handling of complex corruption cases, but despite efforts to improve the reputation of corruption investigations and prosecutions, The European Commission notes that “the prosecution authorities consider the lack of resources of the police and prosecutors to be a serious problem”.
According to the report, a new change in the asset declaration system was approved in 2019, “but the transparency body in charge of background checks is not yet operational.”… In addition, he points to a document, resources “allocated to the Council for the Prevention of Corruption remain limited”…
Brussels also emphasizes that corruption risks such as conflicts of interest “in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic have been the subject of several recommendations at the national level.”…
Lack of data on violence against journalists
With regard to the media, and noting that “the government has taken concrete measures to support the media to alleviate the difficulties” caused by the pandemic, The report states that “the legal framework protects journalists.”…
In spite of this, “There have been cases of threats and restrictions on the professional activities of journalists, including a case of surveillance to identify the sources of journalists, in which the General Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation that will be considered by the Supreme Council of the Prosecutor’s Office”, an allusion to the “e-Mole” case.
According to the vice president for values and transparency, police surveillance of journalists is “unacceptable.”
“We have received reports that some journalists in the European Union have been monitored, and this is unacceptable.”– said Vera Zhurova.
The Justice Commissioner in the Portugal case: warns that the executive branch of the community is “concerned about this situation,” although “not to the same extent as the usual use of surveillance to control journalists in a given country.”
“Stakeholders also point to the absence of any systematic collection of data related to threats or violence against journalists, in particular on the Internet.”, he adds.
The chapter on Portugal in this annual rule of law report ends with the observation that: “Although the civil society space is considered open, new challenges are emerging, in particular due to incidents of hostility and pressure on civil society organizations and human rights defenders”…
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