Slovenia - October 2023

Parliament voted to initiate proceedings for constitutional amendments which would transfer the responsibility for final say on judicial appointments from the Parliament to the President. The Judicial Council would continue to select and propose candidate judges. The proposal, tabled in September 2022, was approved with 61 votes in favour and 25 votes against and is intended to safeguard judicial independence. Judges would be subject to a three-year probation period, as opposed to the present system of automatic lifetime appointments. The changes would not apply to Constitutional Court judges. As a next step, the parliamentary constitutional commission is tasked with finalising the draft bill before it is put to a vote in Parliament. The EU’s recent Rule of Law report encouraged Slovenia to ensure that the reform contains adequate safeguards for judicial independence. Experts have said that the President’s discretionary power for judicial appointments must be constrained, proposing an obligation to justify any decision to reject a candidate.

Sources: STA, Euractiv, Inside Slovenia, Government of Slovenia, European Commission