(million EUR)
Financial programming | 299.3 |
NextGenerationEU |
|
Decommitments made available again (*) | N/A |
Contributions from other countries and entities | 0.0 |
Total budget 2021-2027 | 299.3 |
(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.
Rationale and design of the programme
The Justice programme supports a broad range of beneficiaries that play an important role in the development of an EU area of justice. This includes, primarily, members of the judiciary and judicial staff, but also public authorities, academic/research institutes and training bodies, along with civil-society and non-profit organisations.
A working EU area of justice and effective national justice systems are necessary for a flourishing internal market and for upholding the common values of the EU. Promoting EU values also means protecting them and ensuring an environment respectful of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, with mutual recognition and mutual trust among Member States.
In this context, several challenges persist:
- Judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters is insufficient and access to justice across Member States remains difficult. Tools for collecting comparative information about the quality, independence and efficiency of Member States' justice systems need to be improved. One major obstacle to mutual recognition and judicial cooperation is a lack of trust in other Member States' judicial systems. There is a need to simplify and digitalise communications, access to procedures and legal information, and connection to and between national systems.
- The level of knowledge of the EU acquis and of EU instruments needs to be improved across the Member States. However, national training providers tend to invest their scarce resources in training on national law rather than on EU law, and in national training activities rather than cross-border ones.
- In periods of economic crisis, persistent inequalities and challenges (e.g. migration) test fundamental rights and the EU's fundamental values, including the rule of law, access to justice, space for civil society and the independence of the judiciary.
These challenges are common to all Member States and have cross-border dimensions. While action at the national level is important, it is through EU-level initiatives that inefficiencies, such as insufficient judicial cooperation and the incomplete implementation of EU law, can best be tackled.
The justice programme supports the further development of an EU area of justice based on EU’s values, the rule of law, and mutual recognition and trust. It facilitates access to justice and promotes judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters and the effectiveness of national justice systems.
The specific objectives of the justice programme are to:
- facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, and promote the rule of law, the independence and impartiality of the judiciary – including by supporting the efforts to improve the effectiveness of national justice systems – and the effective enforcement of decisions;
- support and promote judicial training, with a view to fostering a common legal, judicial and rule-of-law culture, and the consistent and effective implementation of relevant EU legal instruments;
- facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice and effective redress, including by electronic means (e-justice), by promoting efficient civil and criminal procedures and by promoting and supporting the rights of all victims of crime, along with the procedural rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings.
The justice programme mainly supports activities for the judiciary and judicial staff by their representative bodies, public authorities and training bodies. It is also open to academic/research institutes and civil-society organisations that contribute to the development of an EU area of justice.
It funds activities to improve mutual trust, cooperation (including through information and communication technology) and knowledge of EU law. It also covers judicial cooperation instruments, the relevant case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and comparative law (notably through supporting the European Judicial Training Network). Finally, it assists in the understanding of civil and criminal law and the legal and judicial systems of the Member States, and in recognising potential obstacles to the smooth functioning of an EU area of justice. The programme also supports relevant civil-society and non-profit organisations to ensure that all citizens have adequate access to their services and to counselling and support activities.
In particular, the following types of activities shall be eligible for funding:
- awareness-raising activities;
- mutual learning through exchange of good practices among stakeholders;
- analytical and monitoring activities;
- training for relevant stakeholders;
- information and communication technology, and the development and maintenance of e-justice tools;
- developing capacity of key European-level networks;
- supporting civil-society organisations and non-profit stakeholders active in the areas of the programme;
- enhancing knowledge of the programme and dissemination, transferability and transparency of its results;
- fostering citizen outreach, including by organising forums for discussion for stakeholders.
The programme is implemented through direct management by the Commission under the lead of DG Justice and Consumers.
The Justice programme supports the further development of an EU area of Justice based on EU’s values, the rule of law, and mutual recognition and trust. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) establishes the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice, with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States. Hence, the competence of the EU in this area is shared with Member States. The creation of a common area requires transnational cooperation mechanisms and networking opportunities, which can typically not be achieved by Member States acting alone. Principles such as mutual trust and mutual recognition of judicial and extra-judicial decisions can be supported more efficiently by action at EU level.
The Justice programme is a key player in the area of judicial training where the actual results demonstrate an improvement in the impact of the programme’s actions in this field. In addition to this, the Justice programme is one of the tools to implement the strategy on European judicial training for 2021-2024.
In the area of victims’ rights, the Commission focuses on the implementation of actions under the first-ever EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025).
Digitalisation of justice systems is another important objective as part of a new push for European democracy and in line with the political priority of a Europe fit for the digital age. The general objective for 2023-2024 is to implement initiatives identified in the 2020 Commission Communication on Digitalisation of justice in the EU and in the Council e-Justice Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2023. This will be accomplished by implementing support actions for digitalisation of justice, introducing new features and enhancements to the European e-Justice Portal, as well as supporting the implementation of e-justice projects, insofar as project initiatives have a European dimension and bring added value.
Consistency, complementarity and synergies exist, in particular, with the following Union instruments: the Citizens, Rights, Equality and Values Programme, the Single Market Programme, the Integrated Border Management Fund, the Internal Security Fund, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Digital Europe programme (DIGITAL), the Anti-Fraud Programme, the European Social Fund+, the Erasmus+ Programme, the Framework Programme for research and innovation Horizon Europe, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III), the LIFE Regulation, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Technical Support Instrument. Coordination within the EU legal and policy framework on trafficking in human beings, as relevant, is also ensured. The Justice programme supports the implementation of many EU strategic policy initiatives, such as: the European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024, the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025), the Commission Communication on the Digitalisation of Justice in the EU, the Council e-Justice Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2023, the European Security Union Strategy and the EU strategy on the rights of the child.
The justice programme builds on the programme of the same name in the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, while reinforcing efforts to promote the rule of law.
Programme website:
Impact assessment:
- The impact assessment of the justice programme was carried out in 2018.
- For further information please consult the Proposal for a Regulation establishing the Justice programme
Relevant regulation:
- Regulation (EU) 2021/693 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
Evaluations:
- 1st part of the ex post evaluation of the 2014-2020 Justice programme
- 2nd part foreseen in 2025 together with the interim evaluation of the 2021-2027 Justice programme.
Budget
Budget programming (million EUR):
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Financial programming | 46.7 | 43.6 | 42.2 | 41.8 | 41.8 | 41.7 | 41.4 | 299.3 |
NextGenerationEU | ||||||||
Decommitments made available again (*) | N/A | |||||||
Contributions from other countries and entities | 0.0 | 0.0 | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | 0.0 |
Total | 46.7 | 43.6 | 42.2 | 41.8 | 41.8 | 41.7 | 41.4 | 299.3 |
(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.
Financial programming:
- EUR 5.7 million (- 2%)
compared to the legal basis*
* Top-ups pursuant to Art. 5 MFF regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.
Budget performance – implementation
Multiannual cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):
Implementation | 2021-2027 Budget | Implementation rate | |
---|---|---|---|
Commitments | 90.3 | 299.3 | 30.2% |
Payments | 51.1 | 17.1% |
Annual voted budget implementation (million EUR)(1):
Commitments | Payments | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Voted budget implementation | Initial voted budget | Voted budget implementation | Initial voted budget | |
2021 | 46.7 | 46.4 | 21.0 | 19.2 |
2022 | 43.6 | 43.6 | 29.5 | 27.4 |
(1) Voted appropriations (C1) only.
- The 2022 commitment appropriations were used for individual commitments for grants and procurement (41 grants were signed in 2022 from the 2022 calls, for an amount of EUR 27.5 million). At the end of 2022, global commitments were made to sign the remaining grants (only 2) from the 2022 calls and for procurement activities. 28 grants from the 2021 calls under the Justice Work Programme for 2021-2022 remained to be signed in 2022 for an amount of EUR 15.4 million.
- The 2022 payment appropriations were used to pay the pre-financing of the grants signed in 2022 from the 2022 calls (41) and from the remaining grants to be signed from the 2021 calls (28) as well as the payments for procurement activities.
- The programme’s implementation in 2022 was satisfactory and went smoothly. The objective of DG Justice and Consumers for 2023 & 2024 is to maintain the level of implementation in the years to come. Under the adopted 2023 budget, EUR 41.1 million are available to support the activities of the Justice programme. Three calls for proposals have been launched for a total budget of EUR 13.3 million. Under these calls, 67 proposals have been submitted of which 27 projects have been awarded for funding and 6 are on the reserve lists.
- Based on the lessons learnt from the past in terms of budget implementation, it was decided to better streamline the calls for proposals when possible. For this reason, in 2023, there will be a new biennial call for proposal to support projects in the area of access to justice which will merge the previous e-Justice and access to justice calls. Moreover, with the aim of focusing more on projects’ results, lump-sums grants will be introduced for all calls for proposals (except those for operating grants) in 2023.
- The level of commitment appropriations requested in the context of the draft budget 2024 will be in line with the Financial Programming of the Justice Programme (as presented in the Draft Budget 2023 while accounting for the adoption of any new legislative proposals). The requested payment appropriations for the 2024 draft budget are calculated based on a precise planning and taking into account the pre-financing rate to be paid. More specifically, they include pre-financing for grants to be signed in 2024 stemming from the 2024 calls and for the remaining grants to be signed in 2024 from the 2023 calls as well as final payments for grants signed in 2021 (average duration of the action grants is 2 years).
Contribution to horizontal priorities
Green budgeting
Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):
Implementation | Estimates | Total contribution | % of the 2021–2027 budget | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | |||
Climate mainstreaming | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1% |
Biodiversity mainstreaming | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0% |
Clean air | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0% |
- In general, all of the projects funded under the Justice programme must comply with EU policy interests and priorities, including in the environment field. Beneficiaries are strongly invited to limit the number of people from each co-beneficiary for in-person meetings, to organise project meetings with partners in blended ways (in person, online and hybrid) and to prefer rail travel when it can be an efficient alternative to air travel.
- In 2022, only one project funded under the call for proposals on judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters was focused on climate and the environment. The ‘Coopération pour la protection de l’environnement par les inspections de la justice’ (COPEIJ) project, with a budget of EUR 0.1 million, will support and promote the effectiveness of environmental protection by criminal justice in the EU justice area at the stages of prevention, sanction and reparation of environmental damage by involving national inspections services (at the local, national and cross-border levels) in the context of the revision of the 2008 directive (1) on the protection of the environment through criminal law.
- In 2022, several procurement contracts contributed to the ‘do no harm’ principle based on their implementation methods (such as online meetings, information technology contracts, web application contracts); no procurement contract was identified as contributing to climate/environmental goals based on the content.
Gender
Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):
Gender score | 2021 | 2022 | Total |
---|---|---|---|
2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
1 | 0.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
0* | 46.7 | 27.9 | 74.6 |
0 | 0.0 | 10.2 | 10.2 |
(*) Based on the applied gender contribution methodology, the following scores are attributed at the most granular level of intervention possible:
- 2: interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality;
- 1: interventions that have gender equality as an important and deliberate objective but not as the main reason for the intervention;
- 0: non-targeted interventions (interventions that are expected to have no significant bearing on gender equality);
- 0*: score to be assigned to interventions with a likely but not yet clear positive impact on gender equality.
The justice programme regulation stipulates in article 4 that gender equality should be promoted in all funded activities. Paragraph 18 of the regulation complements article 4 by underlining the importance of gender mainstreaming in all programme activities and the programme’s commitment to evaluate its gender impacts. Thus, gender quality and mainstreaming are cross-cutting themes.
A key area for advancing gender equality is the promotion of victims’ rights under the specific objective ‘Access to justice for all’. Gender-sensitive support to victims of crimes such as hate crimes, trafficking in human beings and gender-based violence is essential to enable victims to know and exercise their rights. To a lesser extent, judicial cooperation can also promote gender equality. For example, the social rehabilitation and reintegration of people who are subject to measures in the field of judicial cooperation in criminal matters provides scope to provide gender-sensitive support. Judicial cooperation in civil matters also has the potential to promote gender equality, for example by providing legal insights into and raising awareness among professionals of the phenomenon of social parenthood. Judicial training also has the potential to raise awareness of gender inequalities among legal professionals. As a result, judicial training can help judges interpret EU directives, where relevant, in a gender-sensitive way.
Key achievements:
- The 2022 calls were systematically gender-mainstreamed. Applicants were asked to demonstrate in their proposals how a gender equality perspective was incorporated at the design stage and how it will be ensured during project implementation. They were also asked to outline how gender equality is tracked in their project monitoring and results, and to ensure a gender-sensitive approach for the identification of best practices, data collection and information dissemination. This resulted in stronger attention of applicants to gender equality aspects in the design of their projects.
- Gender equality was mainstreamed in the evaluation methodology, criteria and templates for justice calls. As a result, applicants’ attention to gender aspects in their proposals has a direct impact on their performance in the evaluation.
- Improved collection of data through ‘PART C’ of the application form, facilitating the collection of estimated sex-disaggregated data.
- The contracted external experts in charge of evaluating proposals were made aware of the central role of gender equality and briefed on the gender equality tracking methodology. As a result, the Justice programme contributed to capacity-building among experts that work across different Commission funding programmes.
Contributions from grants:
In total, EUR 28.2 million were provided via grants.
Gender score 2:
The specific objectives of the Justice programme are rather technical in nature and focus on legal instruments and procedures. As a result, the programme does not always have an obvious link to gender equality. This partially explains why no grant funded under the programme received a score of 2. Another element that should be considered is that there was no dedicated call promoting victims’ rights in 2022. As mentioned above, the topic of this call has more potential for advancing gender equality. No procurement action has received a score of 2 due to the technical nature of activities funded.
Gender score 1:
About 19% of the funding from grants, or EUR 5.3 million, received a score of 1. Grants funded under the specific objective ‘Judicial cooperation’ contributed strongly to this score, with EUR 2.0 million from action grants. The operating grants promoting judicial cooperation and access to justice also promoted gender equality with EUR 1.9 million. This can be explained by the thematic focus that includes topics such as detention conditions, rehabilitation of detainees and mutual recognition instruments in family law. The procurement action funding the online EU centre for expertise for victims of terrorism contributes to this category with EUR 1.7 million. This corresponds to around one quarter of the procurement budget.
Gender score 0*
The majority of funds implemented via grants, around 54% or EUR 18.9 million, received a score of 0*. A particularly large contribution to this score comes from the operating grant to the European Judicial Training Network (EUR 11.2 million). Training sessions funded by the Justice programme provide a scope to address gender-related issues in judicial proceedings and the interpretation of EU law. They can help judges, advocates general, magistrates, bailiffs and other judicial practitioners to build gender expertise. However, as the trainings first and foremost focus on EU law and its homogenous interpretation, there is potential for training sessions to further integrate a gender perspective. Around one quarter of the procurement budget or EUR 1.7 million fall under this category. This is linked to the awareness campaign on the rule of law that was conducted and helped EU citizens to be aware of their rights.
Gender score 0:
With 20% of funds or EUR 5.6 million labelled with the score 0, the Justice programme’s technical nature is underlined. This amount can be partially explained by the information technology focus of the e-Justice projects funded by the programme. These projects aim to create digital infrastructure and seek to connect different information technology systems with each other, in order to facilitate exchange and use data across different platforms ‘interoperationally’. Another explanation for the funding reported under this score is the technical nature of legal instruments that are supported by the programme, such as the European Arrest Warrant. The largest part of the procurement activities, around 71% or EUR 4.5 million, fall under this score as many technical experts for maintaining information technology platforms were contracted.
Contributions from procurement:
In total, EUR 6.3 million were provided via procurement.
The evaluation of procurement projects is more complicated. Procurement procedures have not yet been adjusted to the gender equality tracking methodology. While the process has started to also introduce a gender perspective into procurement activities, the data are not as reliable at the same level of granularity as the data collected from grants. Therefore, an estimate of the procurement activities’ gender score based on their programming seems most feasible.
The following observations need to be understood as estimates based on procurement’s thematic focus:
Gender score 2:
The same clarifications mentioned above for grants applies to procurement.
Gender score 1:
Procurement activities, such as the organisation of workshops on the protection of vulnerable adults, contributed to this score. However, this part of the procurement budget is small and accounts only for around 3%.
Gender score 0*:
Around 20% of the procurement budget qualifies for a score of 0*. This entire amount, approximately EUR 1.3 million, is linked to an awareness-raising campaign on the rule of law in the EU.
Gender score 0:
Most procurement activities are very technical, such as the maintenance of information technology portals and databases. As a result, 75% of the procurement budget or EUR 4.5 million falls under this category.
Digital
Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):
2021 | 2022 | Total | % of the total 2021-2027 implementation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Digital contribution | 7.4 | 5.3 | 12.7 | 14% |
Contributing to the digital transition is one of the objectives of the Justice programme.
The Justice programme supports:
- actions aiming to improve the effectiveness of justice systems in the EU and facilitate access to justice for all by using electronic means (e-Justice);
- actions aiming to achieve the objectives of the Commission communication on the digitalisation of justice in the European Union and the Council e-Justice strategy and action plan 2019-2023 by supporting the implementation of e-Justice projects at the EU and national levels, as far as they have an EU dimension;
- Member States joining existing or ongoing e-Justice projects, such as the digitalisation of the European Small Claims and European Payment Order procedures, iSupport, the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System, the European case law identifier and interconnection with the search engine on the e-Justice Portal;
- the maintenance of the e-Justice Portal;
- the development of digital skills for legal professionals and other target groups and the digitalisation of training, both in terms of content and methodology;
- actions developing concrete use cases based on artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology in the justice area.
Procurement contribution to digital:
In 2021, EUR 3.9 million were used to finance, among others, information and communication technology contracts, the e-Justice Portal, a study on national digital public services in the justice field and a Digital Justice Ministerial Forum.
In 2022, EUR 3.5 million were used to finance, among others, information and communication technology contracts, expert group meetings on digital criminal justice, the e-Justice Portal, e-learning training on EU law and a conference about the digitalisation of justice.
For the procurement activities, the amounts indicated for both 2021 and 2022 are only the ones already committed. According to the 2022 justice work programme, EUR 4.3 million are foreseen for procurement linked to the digitalisation of justice, so the final amount is expected to increase. It is also important to consider that the total available budget of the programme in 2021 was higher, so the digital contribution of the programme in 2022 is expected to be lower than in 2021.
Above all, the Justice programme is monitoring if and how inflation will impact information technology expenditures in 2023. The budget will be reshuffled if necessary to respond to new emerging needs.
Concerning projects that support the development of digital skills for legal professionals or other target groups (always linked to the digitalisation of justice), the following results have been achieved:
Year 2021:
- Under the 2021 call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects on training of justice professionals covering civil law, criminal law or fundamental rights (JTRA 2021), the ‘Enhancing proficiency of insolvency practitioners in applying EU law and fostering trust and understanding of European judicial culture via participatory training approach and blended learning’ (InsolEuPro) project (budget requested: EUR 0.4 million) will also organise training for insolvency practitioners on digital tools for practice and communication between insolvency practitioners from various EU Member States. Under the same call, the ‘Preparing criminal justice professionals to address new (post)pandemic challenges as a result of criminals’ new modi operandi’ (PostCovid challenges) project (budget requested: EUR 0.3 million) will also train EU legal practitioners on the basics of digital forensics.
- Under the 2021 call for proposals for action grants to promote judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters (JCOO 2021), the ‘Digital communication and safeguarding the parties’ rights: challenges for European civil procedure’ (DIGI-GUARD) project (budget requested: EUR 0.6 million) aims to increase the knowledge of participants in cross-border cases regarding the use of digital communication tools. The ‘European criminal records information system – third country nationals’ project (ECRIS-TCN LT) for Lithuania (budget requested: EUR 0.4 million) promotes digital cooperation and the exchange of biometric data (fingerprints and facial images), and thus contributes to improving data quality in data-exchange processes between countries. It will also create digital tools (functional components) for national law enforcement, judicial and other competent authorities to apply to the Lithuanian central authority in an electronic way, with a request to find the Member States holding information on previous convictions of non-EU nationals, and a request to a specific Member State for obtaining criminal records data; The ‘Freezing orders and confiscation orders: effort for common standards’ (FORCE) project (budget requested: EUR 0.4 million) will develop a set of information and communication technology tools integrated into the project’s website. European practitioners will be able to rely on an updated database on national practices, where they will find the description of the inner freezing and confiscation instruments, relevant contact information on national authorities and practical instructions on how to successfully deliver a freezing/confiscation order. The ‘Small claims analysis net II’ (SCAN II) project (budget requested: EUR 0.8 million) aims at simplifying and digitalising the European Small Claims procedure by developing an information technology platform and a blockchain system to fill the existing gap in the procedure’s enforcement across the EU.
- Under the 2021 call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects to enhance the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime and the rights of victims of crime (JACC 2021), the ‘Digitalisation of defence rights in criminal proceedings’ (DigiRights) project (budget requested: EUR 0.7 million) is focused on the procedural rights which are susceptible to digitalisation, namely the rights to interpretation, translation, access to the case file, legal assistance and legal aid, and to be present at trial. The project will map and assess the existing practices of digitalisation of these rights with a view to proposing a set of EU guidelines for their digital application. The ultimate goal is to promote a digitalisation of procedural rights that ensures a uniform and adequate standard of protection across the EU.
Year 2022:
- Under the 2022 call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects on training of justice professionals covering civil law, criminal law or fundamental rights (JTRA 2022), the ‘Court staff and bailiffs’ (CTAB) training project (budget requested: EUR 0.6 million) will also organise training for 500 court staff and 50 bailiffs on digitalisation. Under the same call, the ‘International judicial training’ project (budget requested: EUR 0.5 million) will organise training for 300 judges to boost their competences in a post-pandemic reality. This will include topics such as digitalisation and access to the tools developed by the EU.
- Under the 2022 call for proposals for action grants to promote judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters (JCOO 2022), the ‘Facilitating mutual recognition: analytics and mutual recognition information legal explainable tool to strengthen cooperation in the criminal matter’ (FACILEX) project (requested budget: EUR 0.6 million) will foster mutual knowledge, communication and ultimately trust among the relevant stakeholders in the area of freedom, security and justice by leveraging all of the potential of digital technologies. Under the same call, the ‘Upgrade of national judicial network’ (NJN) project (requested budget: EUR 0.2 million) aims to digitalise mutual cooperation in civil and commercial matters between the members of the National Judicial Network in Czechia.
For e-Justice action grants, the Justice programme monitors the percentage of co-funded project proposals assessed as ‘acceptable’ or better (at the final assessment stage) as part of the digital tracking methodology. The e-Justice projects funded in 2021 and 2022 are still running and therefore it is not possible to provide these data at the moment.
Budget performance – outcomes
Baseline | Progress | Target | Results | Assessment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Exchanges of information in the European Criminal Records Information System | 0 | 85%(1) | 5.2 million in 2027 | 4.4 million compared to a target of 5.2 million | On track |
Members of the judiciary and judicial staff who participated in training activities | 0 | 85%(1) | 15 000 in 2027 | 12 734 compared to a target of 15 000 | On track |
Hits on the e-Justice Portal/pages addressing the need for information on cross-border civil and criminal cases | 0 | 68%(1) | 2.8 million in 2027 | 1.9 million compared to a target of 2.8 million | On track |
Facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities | 0 | 43%(1) | 105 million in 2027 | 45 million compared to a target of 105 million | On track |
Support and promote judicial training: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities | 0 | 47%(2) | 154 million in 2027 | 73 million compared to a target of 154 million | On track |
Facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities | 0 | 38%(2) | 273 million in 2027 | 105 million compared to a target of 273 million | On track |
(1) % of target achieved by the end of 2022.
(2) % of target achieved by the end of 2021.
Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators
- After 2 years of implementation in the 2021-2027 period, the main identified challenges are shown below.
- Delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have repercussions in 2022 on a number of ongoing projects, for which amendments had to be prepared.
- The sharp increase in energy prices in 2022 had a tangible impact on running grants. As the EU contribution is fixed, beneficiaries complain that they cannot implement all of the activities foreseen in the initial grant agreement. Project officers assist project coordinators on a daily basis to try to find case-by-case solutions. The majority of beneficiaries also complain that inflation is not reflected in the unit cost for travel, accommodation and subsistence. These issues will also impact 2023 grants. The decision on unit costs will be revised to take inflation into consideration.
- Increased number of information technology needs.
- Absence of National Contact Points in the Member States to support the promotion of the programme and increase its knowledge and visibility.
- Nevertheless, the Justice programme is working very well and was able to address new emerging crises like the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine within the limits of its competences and budget possibilities.
- In 2022, the European Judicial Training Network addressed sexual violence as a war crime in the context of the war in Ukraine in its training activities and, for 2023, the Justice Framework Partners have been encouraged to take into consideration, in their work programmes, the specific situation of victims of violence by armed forces fleeing from Ukraine and to address their specific needs inside the EU. Moreover, in the area of victims’ rights, particular attention is paid to access to information, support and protection to victims of war crimes.
In 2022, the programme continued to provide support to the annual work programme of 15 framework partners active in the area of facilitating and promoting judicial cooperation in civil and/or criminal matters and in the area of access to justice with a total budget of EUR 0.2 million, and also to fund the work programme of the European Judicial Training Network with a budget of EUR 11.2 million.
In 2022, the Justice programme also continued to support the Council of Europe in setting up a network of prison monitoring bodies and for the delivery of the SPACE report, an annual report on prison statistics providing clear insights into the detention situations in the Member States, which have a direct impact on judicial cooperation in criminal matters. - Several procurements contracts for a total amount of EUR 6.5 million have been concluded to support key EU policies in the justice field, such as the protection of vulnerable adults and victims’ rights and to support activities such as the development of training e-capsules on EU law and an awareness-raising campaign on the rule of law.
Concerning the indicators which measure the performance of the programme, these show that the programme’s objectives are generally on track. Specifically:
Indicators for specific objective 1: judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters
- In 2019, we saw a dramatic growth of the number of exchanges in the European Criminal Records Information System (a decentralised information technology system operated by the central authorities of the EU Member States). Since 2020, the yearly increase in the exchanges has been considerably slowed down. This is due to the United Kingdom leaving the system and to the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively influenced the movement of people between the EU Member States. In 2022, 4.7 million exchanges of information occurred in the European Criminal Records Information System. This shows a positive increase compared to 2021 (4.1 million exchanges).
- In 2021, 24 civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the JCOO 2021 call were reached by support and capacity-building activities. In addition, seven civil-society organisations active in the area of facilitating and supporting judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters which receive an annual operating grant were supported. In 2022, seven civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the JCOO 2022 call were reached by support and capacity building activities. Finally, seven civil-society organisations active in the area of facilitating and supporting judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters which receive an annual operating grant were supported.
Indicators for specific objective 2: judicial training
- The Justice programme is a key player in the area of judicial training, where the actual results demonstrate an improvement in the impact of the programme’s actions in this field. In addition, the Justice programme is one of the tools to implement the strategy on European judicial training for 2021-2024.
- The year 2020 was exceptional, as thousands (instead of the hundreds planned) of lawyers took part in online training on anti-money laundering supported by the Justice programme.
- In 2021, the number of participants decreased because this training ended. Most training activities still took place online and this gave a tremendous boost to the participation of lawyers. In all, 12 734 justice professionals took part in training supported by the Justice programme in 2021 (around 15% of all those who received training on EU law that year).
- On the other hand, under the specific European Judicial Training Network’s annual training programmes, which are also supported via the Justice programme, in 2021 the number of participants increased by 6 829 in comparison with 2020, as some activities could take place face-to-face, in addition to online. The cost-to-serve ratio (i.e. the price per person for 1 training day offered by the network) reached the extremely efficient level of EUR 304 in 2021 compared to previous years (2019: EUR 311, 2018: EUR 306, 2017: EUR 313, 2016: EUR 318), with the exception of 2020 (EUR 239), which was a special year due to COVID-19 and a majority of trainings taking place virtually (see p. 68 of the latest European Judicial Training Network report: https://ejtn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/EJTN-Annual-Report-2021.pdf).
- The data for 2022 will be available by June 2023, following the preparation of the annual report on European judicial training.
- In 2021, 43 civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the JTRA call 2021 were reached by support and capacity-building activities, including the European Judicial Training Network, which receives an annual operating grant. In 2022, 30 civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the JTRA call 2022 were reached by support and capacity-building activities, including the European Judicial Training Network, which receives an annual operating grant.
Indicators for specific objective 3: access to justice
- In the area of victims’ rights, the programme focuses on the implementation of actions under the first-ever EU strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025).
By the end of 2022, 27 victim support services with national coverage had been established.
Under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework, we monitor only the number of hits on the pages of the e-Justice Portal related to cross-border civil and criminal topics, which is only one part of the e-Justice Portal. This indicator gives an indication of the level of need of information on cross-border civil matters and of the level of relevance of these e-pages favouring greater and easier access to justice by citizens. The European e-Justice Portal is a one-stop shop in justice matters, available in 23 languages. The portal aims at interconnecting existing national justice applications, facilitating judicial cooperation and providing information to a wide variety of stakeholders. It should be noted that in 2021, due to a technical issue, the reported 2021 figure did not account for the traffic received during July-September 2021. The data have been updated for 2021. The 2024 milestone has been already achieved and surpassed in 2022. - In 2021, 91 civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the specific objective ‘Access to justice’ (compared to 74 under the JACC 2021 call and 17 under the e-Justice call 2021) were reached by support and capacity-building activities. In addition, six civil-society organisations active in the area of access to justice which receive an annual operating grant were supported. In 2022, two civil-society organisations involved in projects funded under the e-Justice 2022 call were reached by support and capacity-building activities. In addition, six civil-society organisations active in the area of access to justice which receive an annual operating grant were supported. The JACC call did not take place in 2022 and this is why the number of civil-society organisations in 2022 is lower.
- In 2021-2022, around 2 170 28 people are expected to be reached in the framework of activities organised by projects funded under the Justice programme or by DG Justice and Consumers Framework Partners. This data has been extracted from the PART C of the proposals awarded for funding in 2021 and 2022 and might be further updated due to on-going developments in the e-Grants tool.
- The Justice programme’s performance is also assessed with the help of EUSurvey, which is filled in by the participants of activities carried out by projects funded under the Justice programme. The results from EUSurvey are collected centrally by DG Justice and Consumers. The latest results, on the basis of 578 answers received, show that 62% of respondents gave 5 out of 5 as the overall assessment of the event in which they participated. Respondents indicated ‘increased awareness’ as the greatest benefit that the event brought to them, followed by ‘increased knowledge’, ‘increased cooperation’ and ‘increased skills’. More than 50% also indicated that their perception of the topic has changed to some extent and 49% declared that they are now likely to react differently when confronted with the topic. It is also worth noting that the survey clearly showed that the Justice programme is still not well-known enough among the key stakeholders who participated in the survey. As already mentioned above, having National Contact Points in the Member States to promote the activities of the programme, as is the case for the ‘Citizens, equality, rights and values’ (CERV) programme, would be helpful to give more visibility to the funding opportunities available under the Justice programme.
MFF 2014-2020 – Justice
The justice programme supports a broad range of beneficiaries that play an important role in the development of an EU area of justice. These include, primarily, members of the judiciary and judicial staff, but also public authorities, academic/research institutes and training bodies, along with civil-society and non-profit organisations.
Budget
Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):
Implementation | 2014-2020 Budget | Implementation rate | |
---|---|---|---|
Commitments | 317.0 | 318.0 | 99.7% |
Payments | 250.8 | 78.9% |
- The completion line (legacy line) of the justice programme is used to provide the final payments from past commitments from the previous multiannual financial framework. In 2022, 55 final payments for grants from the 2014-2020 justice programme were paid amounting to EUR 5.2 million. As regards 2023, the payment appropriations will be used to cover the remaining final payments that are still outstanding.
Baseline | Progress | Target | Results | Assessment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of items of exchange information in the European criminal records information system | 0.3 million | > 100% (*) | 3.5 million in 2020 | 4.1 million compared to a target of 3.5 million | On track |
Judiciary / judicial staff training | 0 | > 100% (**) | 16 000 in 2020 | 22 423 compared to a target of 16 000 | On track |
Hits on the e-Justice Portal | 0.4 million | 100% (*) | 4.6 million in 2020 | 4.6 million out of 4.6 million | On track |
(*) % of target achieved by the end of 2022.
(**) % of target achieved by the end of 2020.
Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators
- The outputs from the justice programme in 2014-2020 are closely linked to the Commission’s activities relating to preparing, supporting and ensuring the correct implementation of an important number of EU legal instruments in civil and criminal law, improving their enforcement and remedy capacities in Member States and ensuring adequate cross-border and EU-level cooperation.
- The proper application of EU law is a key element in allowing EU citizens and business to benefit from that law. This is achieved through both preventive action (workshops, expert meetings, stakeholder dialogues, technical guidelines for national authorities and training of justice professionals financed through the programme) and infringement procedures. The activities funded by the programme resulted in the better implementation and functioning of EU justice instruments (e.g. European Investigation Orders, European Arrest Warrants and surrender procedures, European Protection Orders, European Account Preservation Orders, family law). Analytical activities also helped prepare or accompanied new legislation, and responded to policy changes in the areas covered by the programme.
- The justice programme also supported activities relating to the promotion of the rule of law via all its instruments. Action grants on judicial training offered training to the judiciary on the main principles and values stemming from Court of Justice of the European Union and European Court of Human Rights case-law and international documents, and such grants also funded projects to improve the quality of national judicial systems.
- The actions of the programme in relation to specific objective 1 (‘Judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters’) are on track to achieve their goals. The programme has helped to improve the implementation and functioning of existing legislative cooperation instruments and has supported the development of several information and communication technology tools to enhance access to information.
- Overall, the justice programme has performed very well in achieving its goals in relation to specific objective 2 (‘Judicial training’).
- In 2020, most training activities took place online, adapting their delivery to the pandemic and to the travel restrictions. Online activities gave a tremendous boost to participation in the training activities supported by the programme, especially regarding attendance by lawyers. The overall number of participants reached a record level of 22 423 in 2020 (around 7% of all the justice professionals who received training on EU law that year).
- On the other hand, under the specific European Judicial Training Network’s annual training programmes, which are also supported via the justice programme, the number of participants dropped to 5 074 in 2020, as not all activities could be moved online. For example, most face-to-face exchanges could not take place. However, the cost-to-serve ratio (i.e. the price per person for one training day offered by the network) decreased to an exceptional level of EUR 239 compared to previous years (see p. 68 of the last European Judicial Training Network report: https://ejtn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/EJTN-Annual-Report-2021.pdf), as online activities are cheaper than cross-border face-to-face activities.
- The actions of the programme in relation to specific objective 3 (‘Access to justice’) are on track to achieve their goals of facilitating access to justice for all – including promoting and supporting the rights of victims of crime – while respecting the rights of the defence.
- The European e-Justice Portal, a one-stop shop for justice matters, contributes significantly to improving and facilitating access to justice for citizens, businesses, national authorities, legal practitioners and the judiciary. Over the years, it has grown to cover more than 150 topics in a wide variety of areas.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to have an impact on the implementation of the programme in relation to funds awarded via action grants or operating grants. However, a full assessment is not yet possible, since reporting for this period will only be done later at project closure or final report time.
- Many of the programme’s beneficiaries converted activities such as training to online events as much as possible. Obviously, much less funding is needed for such events. Moreover, some activities, while not completely cancelled, were reduced in scope (e.g. the parts that were only meaningful in case of physical interaction have been delayed, or in some cases cancelled). Both factors will result in funds being recovered in upcoming years.
Sustainable development goals
Contribution to the sustainable development goals
SDGs the programme contributes to | Example |
---|---|
SDG5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls |
The programme in all its activities will support gender mainstreaming: the Justice Programme regulation stipulates in Article 4 that gender equality should be promoted in all funded activities. This is particularly the case for the specific objective ‘access to justice’ which promotes also victims’ rights and helps victims of crime to receive gender-sensitive support. Also the specific objective ‘judicial training’ is important to promote gender equality. Judicial training funded by the programme help legal practitioners and judicial staff to build gender expertise and raise awareness of gender aspects when applying and interpreting EU law. Information on the key achievements on gender equality is given in the section about ‘Contribution to gender equality’. |
SDG10 Reduce inequalities within and among countries |
The Justice programme aims to support transnational projects. Through these projects by sharing good practices, organising training and awareness rising activities among justice professionals of different Member States, the programme contributes to the reduction of inequalities and discriminations between EU citizens and among Member States in the justice field. |
SDG16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels |
Through the Justice programme’s financial support to cross-border training activities and to the European Judicial Training Network, 12 734 justice professionals participated in judicial training programmes in 2021 thereby fostering a common legal and judicial culture. In 2021, four new projects in the field of e-Justice were awarded, for a total budget of EUR 2.6 million. The European e-Justice Portal, established to facilitate access to justice throughout the EU, received 5.7 million visits in total in 2022. |