Belgium slow to implement European court rulings, report finds

Belgium is slow to carry out judgments from Europe’s top courts. It takes almost five years on average to turn key rulings into national law, a new report by the European Implementation Network (EIN) and Democracy Reporting International (DRI) shows.

The study tracks how EU countries implement major decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). These rulings often require new legislation on issues such as asylum, judicial independence, equality, detention conditions and privacy.

Belgium is labelled a “moderately weak” performer on ECHR judgments. The country needs four years and nine months on average to comply. About a third of its major Strasbourg cases from the past decade (17 in total) remain unresolved. Some EU states do far worse: Romania has 111 cases still pending, and Bulgaria takes more than seven years to act.

Belgium performs even worse before the CJEU, where it is classed as a “weak complier”. Of 28 rulings between 2019 and 2025, the country fully implemented only 16. Eleven cases have been waiting more than two years for action.

Across the EU, delays are becoming the norm. By early 2025, 650 leading ECHR judgments were still awaiting implementation, and more than a third of CJEU rulings were either only partly followed or ignored. 

^{European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ©SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP}