Call: Support for judicial cooperation in criminal matters

The general objective of the Programme shall be to contribute to the further development of a European area of justice based on mutual recognition and mutual trust, in particular by promoting judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

Specific objectives:

• to facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters;
• to support and promote judicial training, including language training on legal terminology, with a view to fostering a common legal and judicial culture;
• to facilitate effective access to justice for all, including to promote and support the rights of victims of crime, while respecting the rights of the defence;
• to support initiatives in the field of drugs policy as regards judicial cooperation and crime prevention aspects closely linked to the general objective of the Programme, in so far as they are not covered by the Internal security fund for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management or by the Health for Growth Programme;

The specific objectives of the Programme shall be pursued through, in particular:

• enhancing public awareness and knowledge of Union law and policies;
• with a view to ensuring efficient judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, improving knowledge of Union law, including substantive and procedural law, of judicial cooperation instruments and of the relevant case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and of comparative law;
• supporting the effective, comprehensive and consistent implementation and application of Union instruments in the Member States and the monitoring and evaluation thereof;
• promoting cross-border cooperation, improving mutual knowledge and understanding of the civil and criminal law and the legal and judicial systems of the Member States and enhancing mutual trust
• improving knowledge and understanding of potential obstacles to the smooth functioning of a European area of justice;
• improving the efficiency of judicial systems and their cooperation by means of information and communication technology, including the cross-border interoperability of systems and applications.

The aim is to promote judicial cooperation in criminal matters and to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU mutual recognition instruments in criminal matters.

The priorities of this call are:

1) Priority shall be given to the implementation and application of the following judicial cooperation instruments:

• Directive 2014/41/EU on the European Investigation Order in criminal matters;
• Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA on mutual recognition of confiscation orders, particular in view of the adoption of Directive 2014/42/EU on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union and of Directive 2014/42 on the European Investigation Order;
• Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties or other Treaties containing provisions on Mutual Legal Assistance with third States (e.g. EU-US MLA Agreement, Budapest Cybercrime Convention), in particular with respect to the exchange of electronic data and financial information;

Projects on the following instruments can also be selected if the practical added value of the project is particularly well demonstrated:

• Directive 2011/99 on the European Protection Order ;
• Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA on financial penalties ;
• Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on transfer of prisoners ;
• Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA on probation and alternative sanctions ;
• Framework Decision 2009/829/JHA on the European Supervision Order ;
• Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA on the European arrest warrant
• 2000 Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the European Union (established by Council Act of 29 May 2000);

2) Other priority is the cooperation between prosecutors of different Member States for the application of the instruments mentioned under priority 1. above on issues related to counter terrorism and organised crime.

Applicants and partners must be legally constituted public or private nonprofit-oriented organisations, or international organisations. 

The project must be transnational and must be submitted by a partnership of eligible organisations (i.e. applicant and partners; any associate partners participating in the project are not counted for the purposes of this criterion) from at least two different eligible countries.

The EU grant requested cannot be lower than 75 000 €. 

The grant cannot constitute more than 80% of overall eligible project costs. 

Contact