WJP Report: We lose two places in Global Rule of Law Index

Our country is among the 14 member states of the European Union that have regressed in the last year regarding respect for the values of the rule of law, according to the recent report published by the World Justice Project. With an overall score of 0.63 on the eight analyzed chapters (constraints on government power, absence of corruption, open government, human rights, order and security, law enforcement, civil law and criminal law), our country is in the middle of the European ranking for the year 2023 regarding the rule of law, the ranking of which are Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Globally, however, our country ranks 40th out of 142 evaluated states, down two places compared to last year, when it occupied the 38th position. According to the details presented on the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index website, which measures from 0 to 1 belonging to the rule of law, with a score of 0.63, our country is in the group of states that can be said to respect the rules of the rule of law.

Romania's score in 2023 is 0.38% lower than last year, but nevertheless from the situation presented in the cited report, we note that the EU scaremongers in terms of the rule of law are Hungary, Poland, Greece and Belgium, while Bulgaria and Slovakia recorded the most progress in 2023. Bulgaria tops the list with +1.7% in progress compared to last year, while Greece and Belgium recorded the biggest declines of 1.4% and 1% respectively compared to 2022. Poland decreased the level of the rule of law in 2023 by 0.6% compared to last year, reaching a regression of 11% compared to 2016, while Hungary experienced a decrease of 0.2%, which led to a regression of 9.9% compared to the situation 7 years ago.

We note that, despite the progress made by Bulgaria during the current year, the neighboring country is at the bottom of the ranking of EU member states regarding the observance of the rule of law in the period 2016-2023, according to the work prepared by the World Justice Project.

According to the report, 78 percent of countries worldwide have experienced a decline in the rule of law since 2016, with parliaments, the judiciary and civil society losing ground in their ability to check executive power on a global scale. Scores on the Government Control and Distribution of Powers Index have fallen in 74 percent of countries over the past seven years.

Although the EU remains a bastion of the rule of law, with European states regressing less than countries in other regions, 14 member states saw a decrease in the index between 2022 and 2023. The Rule of Law Index is based on assessments of countries' legal systems, government transparency, constraints on government, assessment of respect for fundamental rights, law and order and finally law enforcement.

From the report we also note that Denmark (with a score of 0.96), Norway (0.94), Sweden (0.90) and Finland (0.89) are the European countries least affected by corruption, while Romania it is in the second part of the European ranking, with 0.56 points (above the global average of 0.51, but below the European average of 0.73), equal to Greece, but below the global average of 0.51. At the bottom of the corruption ranking are Slovakia with 0.53, Hungary - 0.50 and Bulgaria - 0.45.

Our country is in the middle of the ranking in terms of the transparency of the activity of public authorities and open governance, with a score of 0.63 (better than the global average of 0.52, but below the European average of 0.72), and is regarded as a factor of stability as long as in terms of order and security the central and local authorities in Romania obtained in the cited report a score of 0.83, equal to that of the USA, above the global average of 0.72 and close to the average EU which stands at 0.86.

If in terms of civil legislation, we are well placed, in the middle of the ranking with a score of 0.63 (close to the European average of 0.69), in terms of criminal legislation we still have gaps according to cited sources that give us only 0.52 points (below the European average of 0.66), but places us ahead of Croatia (0.51), Greece (0.50), Hungary (0.45) and Bulgaria (0.44) which closes the ranking.