The Council of Europe's European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) has published its Report on the evaluation of European judicial systems. The report is based on 2022 data and covers 44 Council of Europe member states as well as two CEPEJ observer states, Israel and Morocco.

The report provides country profiles for each member state of the Council of Europe, in which information can be found on the length of time it takes to examine and resolve a civil, criminal and administrative case, as well as information on the salaries of judges and prosecutors, access to justice, budget alocated to the justice system or the way ICT technologie are applied. The report also gives an insight into gender balance in the judiciary, assessing the number of women judges, prosecutors, heads of courts and chief prosecutors.

The CEPEJ report shows, for example, that a Moldovan judge at the end of his or her career earns an annual salary which constitutes only a 1/5th of the median salary in the Council of Europe countries: €19,270 per year compared to €100,367 per year.

On the other hand, in Europe, between 2012 and 2022, the salaries of judges and public prosecutors as a proportion of average salaries increased slightly, although there were significant disparities, with some countries seeing decreases. On average, the gross salary of judges is 2.5 times higher than the average national salary at the beginning of their career and 4.9 times higher at the end of career. On the other hand, the gross salary of public prosecutors at the beginning of their career is on average 1.9 times the average national salary, with this ratio being 3.7 at Supreme Court level.

The document shows that courts in the Republic of Moldova continue to be the most efficient at the highest level and in the field of civil and commercial litigation. On the other hand, the duration of the resolution of administrative cases continues to increase already for the third consecutive evaluation cycle, reaching well above the Council of Europe median and reaching a duration of almost 2 years from first to last instance. In comparison, criminal cases are being examined more quickly than in the previous evaluation cycle.

The CEPEJ report shows that the glass ceiling still persists in the Moldovan judicial system. In the Moldovan system, 34% of all prosecutors are women and only 16% of all chief prosecutors are women. Also, in only 35% of cases do women head the courts. Among judges, 51% are women.

The study also shows that access to the courts is free in only three member states or that European countries spend an average of €85.4 per capita (€7.31 more than in 2020) and 0.31% of GDP on their judicial system.

The report aims to provide policy makers and justice professionals with a practical and detailed tool to better understand the functioning of justice in Europe and beyond, in order to improve its efficiency and quality.