Training of Justice Professionals

Objectives

Training of justice professionals on EU law is an essential tool to ensure the correct and effective application of EU law, to foster mutual trust among justice professionals in cross-border proceedings and to support the implementation of the EU values and principles, such as the rule of law.

After the great progress made since the adoption of the European judicial training strategy for 2011-2020, the European Commission has put in motion a judicial training package, adopted on 2 December 2020, to modernise justiceThe package included a European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024, the 9th annual report 2020 on European Judicial training of Directorate-General Justice and Consumers and the launch of the European Training Platform (ETP) on the European e-Justice Portal.

Strategy

The European Judicial Training Strategy 2025 - 2030

After the great progress made since the adoption of the 

• European judicial training strategy for 2011-2020 and the
• European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024, 

the European Commission has on 20 November 2025 adopted the new 

• Judicial Training Strategy 2025-2030

As part of the Digital Justice Package, the new strategy has a strong focus on digitalisation, supporting building 

(1) the skills to efficiently use digitalised tools and infrastructure in justice systems, 

(2) knowledge of EU- and national law, which is adapted to the needs of the digital economy and society, as well as

(3) awareness on the digitalisation of justice. 

 Training will play a crucial role in building IT and AI literacy of justice professionals, tailored to their specific roles and responsibilities. Networks and relevant partners to the European Commission will play a more important role in the coordination of stakeholders and the flow of information will become more direct. We must also raise awareness of the importance and benefits of digitalisation, while strengthening knowledge of EU law relevant to the digital economy and society, including the use of digitalised cross-border cooperation instruments. 

Other training objectives, e.g. within fundamental rights and the rule of law, recurrent EU training areas and enlargement remain key areas of further development for judicial training.

The package includes the European Judicial Training Strategy 2025-2030, the Commission Staff Working Document: Stock-taking of the results of judicial training 2021 – 2024, the Digital Justice@2030 Strategy, as well as the launch of the European Judicial Training Dashboard, replacing the previous Annual Reports with an interactive collection of data on judicial training in Europe since 2011. Moreover, the strategy aims to boost the use of the European Training Platform (ETP) on the European e-Justice Portal.

Training on the European e-Justice Portal

You are a justice professional? You are interested in training on EU Law? Visit the European Training Platform (ETP) on the e-Justice Portal. The ETP is a search tool that enables justice professionals to find self-learning material on EU law. The Commission contributes to the platform with up-to-date and ready-to-use training materials or handbooks produced notably thanks to EU financial support. 

The European judicial training policy and the annual reports

Visit the European judicial training pages of the European e-Justice Portal if you want to know more about the European judicial training policy and its actors.

To learn more about the level of participation of justice professionals in judicial training on EU law, have a look at the data on the Judicial Training Dashboard. The Dashboard summarises all data measuring the participation of justice professionals in judicial training on EU law and helps to monitor the progress made.

Good training practices

Training providers and trainers can find factsheets describing good practices in training judges and prosecutors on the e-Justice Portal. The practices cover a wide range of topics, from training needs assessment to training delivery and evaluation. 

Events

The European Commission will hold the European Judicial Training Conference to facilitate the implementation of the objectives of the new strategy.

The upcoming conference aims at facilitating the implementation of the objectives of the new Judicial Training Strategy and initiating the Judicial Training Forum, a tool set in the new strategy to ensure targeted and results oriented stakeholders’ outreach and engagement.

The conference will help to elaborate on suitable ways to implement the new strategy and to secure the commitment of national and European training providers to contribute to achieving its objectives, clarifying their roles and responsibilities. Another aim is to create a leverage effect for EU funding. To enable an in-depth discussion of the above-mentioned objectives, the upcoming conference will take place in person, in Nicosia on 26-27 February 2026 under the auspices of the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the EU.

High-level EU Conference “European Judicial Training: Supporting the Digitalisation of Justice” 25-26 April 2024

The conference addressed representative justice professionals (judges, prosecutors, court and prosecution office staff, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, prison and probation staff) in the EU Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries. With the objective to assess the training needs for the new strategy post 2024: European judicial training strategy 2021-2024, representatives had the chance to share their views and experiences and thereby contribute to the upcoming strategy reflections.

The overall objective was to:

1. discuss the training needs of justice professionals related to the digitalisation of justice;
2. encourage national and European judicial training, building-up the “digital capacity” of justice professionals;
3. involve judicial training stakeholders in the process of drafting the next European Judicial Training Strategy.

Through specialised workshops within the profession and in mixed groups, and in with plenary discussion, the conference had a strong focus on the “digital capacity” of justice professionals, allowing to learn about the impact of digitalisation on the content of training and the training methodology itself. The event opened the possibility to exchange views on concrete training needs and experienced examples of best practice.

On day 1, the work focused on the training needs for the digitalisation of justice, related to:

• mindsets of justice professionals,
• training skills to apply digital tools,
• training on changes in procedural and substantive law,
• training methodology,
• EC support to training.

On day 2, sessions were structured to discuss training needs, other than the digitalisation of justice, related to:

• Assessment of previous training needs,
• Definition of new training needs,
• EC support to training.

European Commission online conference ‘Closing Conference of the project: CJEU Hearings’ Recording as a Judicial Training Tool’ 07 March 2024

On 7 March, the European Commission, in partnership with the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), organised a conference promoting training videos for justice professionals on the CJEU. Videos discuss the mission, jurisdiction, procedures and proceedings of the Court of Justice. These 6 videos are available on the European Training Platform (ETP), and on the European Union Academy Platform (EU Academy). They provide a great potential for initial and in-service training of justice professionals, both at national and European level.

High-level EU conference “Judicial Training: The right skills to embrace digitalisation of Justice” 26/28 April 2023

The conference addresses those in charge of training for judges, prosecutors, court and prosecution office staff, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, prison and probation staff in the EU Member States, the candidate and potential candidate countries. It focuses in depth on the digitalisation of justice, one of the priorities set by the European judicial training strategy 2021-2024.

During 26 specialised workshops and in the plenary, the conference discusses how to upskill the “digital capacity” of justice professionals, allowing to learn about the impact of digitalisation on the content of training and the training methodology itself.  It gives possibility to exchange on the concrete training needs and experience examples of best practice.

High-level EU judicial training conference on initial training and the respect for the rule of law 22/23 February 2022

As another very important step in the implementation of the European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024, the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, the École Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM) and the European Commission jointly held a high-level two-day hybrid conference in Bordeaux on 22 - 23 February. The conference, entitled ‘Initial Training of Justice Professionals Serving the Rule of Law’, was devoted to judicial initial training and the respect for the rule of law within the European Union, in particular for magistrates and lawyers. To learn more about the conference, its lively discussions in plenary sessions and in numerous working groups, and about the concrete follow-up actions concluded during the conference, have a look at the conference report:

High-level digital conference on European judicial training 6/7 May 2021

As a major milestone in the dissemination and implementation of the new European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of EU, the Centro de Estudos Judiciários (CEJ) of Portugal and the European Commission jointly held a high-level digital conference entitled ‘Modernising EU Justice Systems by boosting training of justice professionals’ on 06 and 07 May 2021.To learn more about the conference and its fruitful discussions and debates have a look at the conference report:

Evaluation of the 2021-2024 European judicial training strategy

Commission Staff Working Document: Stock-taking of the results of judicial training 2021-2024

Study to support the stock-taking of the judicial training strategy for 2021-2024 and Annexes

2011-2020 European judicial training strategy

The evaluation of the 2011-2020 European judicial training strategy adopted in 2019 showed that the objectives were overall achieved in an efficient manner. The strategy has helped to increase the number of training activities, but also promoted new types of activity, such as exchange programmes. The 2011 Communication’s main objective, that half (800.000) of all EU justice professionals should attend training on EU law between 2011 and 2020, was already reached in 2017, two years ahead of schedule. It has helped improve training on EU law for several categories of justice professionals, especially judges and prosecutors. It has also built the capacities of networks such as the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) and reinforced EU level networks and training providers.

Financial support

Training activities are supported through grants. More information about EU financial support may be found here:

• Directorate General Justice
• Directorate General Competition
• European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)
• Directorate General Home Affairs

Useful Links

• Annual calls for proposal
• European Training Platform for news, self-learning material and training provider information
• The current Judicial Training Strategy
• Judicial Training Dashboard for statistical data on training on EU law