The president of the Cyprus Bar Association delivered a scathing assessment of the country’s justice system during a parliamentary committee session, claiming courts take 17 years to resolve cases whilst European Commission reports suggest completion times of just 1.5 years.
Michalis Vorkas addressed the House Institutions Committee on Wednesday during discussions of the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report for Cyprus, challenging official statistics and highlighting systemic failures across the judicial system.
The intervention sparked heated debate over justice administration effectiveness and raised questions about data accuracy provided to European Union monitoring bodies.
Courts take 17 years to resolve cases, Vorkas says
“How can there be trust when a case in court needs 17 years to finish?” Vorkas asked the packed committee room. “How can you have trust when you cannot enter buildings in Nicosia because they will collapse? How can you have trust when there are no secretaries to type court decisions and it takes four to five months to receive the judgement?”
Vorkas questioned European Commission statistics showing civil cases completed in 361 days in 2022 and 605 days in 2023, stating: “I do not know who gave them this data. We are misleading the European Commission, with all due respect.”
The bar association president, who has served 32 years as a lawyer, cited multiple systemic problems including inadequate court buildings, staff shortages causing delayed judgements, and pending legislation on judgment enforcement dating from 2018.
European Commission receives misleading justice statistics
Justice Ministry official Phaedra Gregoriou explained that statistics are provided by judicial services through the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), which applies its own methodology to calculate averages.
“The Justice Ministry does not keep statistical data at all,” Gregoriou said. “Statistics are provided by the judicial service which has the cases, but courts send them to CEPEJ and the Rule of Law report draws from there.”
MP Andreas Pasiourtidis supported Vorkas’s assessment, stating: “Nothing is tried in two years. Someone gave incorrect data to calculate the average. These days are very far from reality.”
Vorkas also criticised inequality in accessing evidence, citing cases where citizens pursuing legal action against the state cannot access evidence already held by the Law Office, calling such practices “wrong” and demanding equal access to ensure fair proceedings.
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