Funding programme

The Justice programme is the EU’s funding programme to support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

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Call overview

This call aims to support transnational projects in the fields of e-Justice, victims’ rights and procedural rights.

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Call detail

The call for proposals aims to facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all, 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 as well as the procedural rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings.

This biennial call for proposals, under the Access to justice specific objective, covers two priorities:

 
1. E-justice priority
2. Victims’ rights and procedural rights priority

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Background

Digitalisation has the potential to improve the efficiency of justice, for example by replacing paper-based with digital communication and by allowing scarce human resources to focus on the essential functions of justice. Digitalisation can also tangibly contribute to increasing the resilience of justice systems in time of crisis. Similarly, progress on European e-Justice can support an effective European area of justice with regard to strengthening judicial cooperation and facilitating access to justice for individuals, legal practitioners and businesses.

Read more in the call document.

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Objectives

Facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all, 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 as well as the procedural rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings.

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Themes and priorities

Priority 1 - e-Justice

The key objective under the e-Justice priority is to support the implementation of Regulation 2023/2844.

• Primary priority will be given to projects facilitating electronic cross-border interaction and communication between judicial authorities, as well as with citizens, businesses and practitioners in judicial proceedings.
• Secondary priority will be given to projects aiming at joining or enhancing existing or ongoing e-Justice projects.
• Finally, as tertiary priority, other e-Justice projects related to the development of relevant EU policies that are in advanced stage of development or already live on the e-Justice Portal at the moment when the call is published could also be financed.

National projects will be funded insofar as they offer a clearly demonstrated EU added value, for instance allowing to participate in EU projects, providing best practices for other EU Member States or promoting interoperability. Notwithstanding, transnational (multi-country) projects will have priority over national ones.

Activities:

Project activities under this call would in principle include analytical, conceptual, design and elaboration work, IT software development, quality assurance and related auxiliary measures necessary for the establishment of new IT systems, as well as the expansion and adaptation of existing national and transnational solutions towards addressing the objectives of the call.

Indicative budget: EUR 2 400 000

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Priority 2 - Victims’ rights and procedural rights

Projects to be funded under this priority should:

• contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU law in the area of the rights of victims of crime, notably in line with the priorities set up by the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025).
• contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU criminal law in the area of the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime.

In both areas (procedural rights and victims’ rights), the Commission will consider proposals concerning possible future EU initiatives regarding gaps in EU legislation and policy where a further need for EU action is identified that would tie in with the exisiting EU acquis/policy and its effective implementation. Projects ensuring maximum practical benefits and impact for the target groups will be assessed more favorably than theoretical projects consisting mainly of research and other analytical activities. Actions on access to information, support, protection to victims of core international crimes will also be considered. Successful projects shall ensure easy access to and wide dissemination of their results.

Activities:

The following activities can be covered:

• mutual learning, exchange of good practices, development of working and learning methods which may be transferable to other participating countries;
• exchange and provision of information and development of information and educational tools;
• capacity building for professionals, including training in victim-sensitive communication;
• facilitating cooperation between competent authorities (including where relevant national experts or agencies dealing with the aspects covered by this call) and/or legal practitioners and/or service providers (including multi-disciplinary networks at EU or international, national, regional or local levels) and/or civil society organisations / National Human Rights Institutions / Equality bodies, Ombuds Institutions and national authorities (at national and local level, where relevant, including experts with gender expertise);
• communication activities including dissemination of information about rights and activities raising awareness of the existing rules on rights at EU and national levels, relevant to the priorities of the call;
• training activities, as long as they are of ancillary nature and not the main purpose of the project;
• analytical activities, such as data collection and creation of data bases, surveys, research etc.

Indicative budget: EUR 3 000 000

Read more about the two priorities in the call document.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

+ be legal entities (public or private bodies)

+ be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs), excluding Denmark)

• non-EU countries: countries associated to the Justice Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries).

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Consortium composition

For priority 1 - e-Justice

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:

• minimum two independent entities from two different eligible countries
• The consortium must include at least one public body, private non-profit organisation or international organisation as beneficiary (not as affiliated entity).

Proposals by single applicants or by a consortium from one eligible country are exceptionally allowed, but only if the project application clearly demonstrated potential for EU added value.

For priority 2 - Victims’ rights and procedural rights

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:

• minimum two independent entities from two different eligible countries.
• the consortium must include at least one public body, private non-profit organisation or international organisation as beneficiary or affiliated entity.

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Project Duration

Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months

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Budget

The estimated available call budget is EUR 5 400 000.

‍Priority 1

Indicative budget: EUR 2 400 000

For priority 1 (e-Justice): Project budgets (requested grant amount) cannot be lower than EUR 100 000. The maximum requested grant amount is EUR 800 000 per project.

‍Priority 2

Indicative budget: EUR 3 000 000

For priority 2 (victims’ rights and procedural rights): Project budgets (requested grant amount) cannot be lower than EUR 100 000. There is no upper limit.

For both priorities, the grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested