Deadline: 2-Oct-25
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for the Action Grants to support Transnational Projects in the fields of e-Justice, victims’ rights and procedural rights
Objective
- 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.
Themes and Priorities
- This call for proposals, under the Access to justice specific objective, covers two priorities:
- Priority 1 – e-Justice
- 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:
- Preparatory and implementation activities with regard to the application of Regulation 2023/2844 on the digitalisation of cross border judicial cooperation. Activities should aim among others at facilitating the development and installation of national access points to the decentralised IT system to be set up under the Regulation and the implementation of provisions of the Regulation on videoconferencing and electronic payment of fees.
- Further actions on the use of videoconferencing in a cross-border setting, not falling under the scope of regulation 2023/28447, such as:
- providing a concrete IT solution for the digital identification of the parties of the trial in accordance with the European Digital Identity Framework (Regulation (EU) 2024/1183);
- providing an IT solution or software that would help to solve the problem of interoperability arising from the use of different videoconferencing software by the Member States;
- providing solutions that would help to ensure equal access to videoconferencing in case of vulnerable persons, people with lack of digital knowledge or people with disabilities.
- Secondary priority will be given to projects aiming at joining or enhancing existing or ongoing e-Justice projects:
- Implementation of the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI9) in case law repositories and interconnection with the e-Justice Portal;
- Participation in the European Court Database (in both civil and criminal matters) hosted on the e-Justice Portal.
- Participation in the Find a Lawyer (FAL) search tool hosted on the e-Justice Portal;
- Participation in the Find a Notary (FAN) search tool hosted on the e-Justice Portal.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- Projects to be funded under this priority should:
- Priority 1 – e-Justice
Funding Information
- 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.
Duration
- Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months.
Eligible Activities
- Activities that can be funded:
- Gender mainstreaming:
- All proposals should assess the gender dimension of their project. In principle, all activities should, both at design and implementation stage, incorporate a gender equality perspective. Thus, applicants are expected to conduct and include in their proposal a gender analysis, which outlines how the target groups’ genders relate to the needs the project seeks to address.
- For priority 1 – e-Justice
- 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.
- Supporting activities relating to project management, content preparation, editorial work, communication, promotion and dissemination are also eligible for funding.
- For priority 2 – Victims’ rights and procedural rights
- 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;
- analytical activities, such as data collection and creation of data bases, surveys, research etc.
- The following activities can be covered:
- Gender mainstreaming:
Expected Impact
- For priority 1 – e-justice
- Expected results are:
- Strengthening the digitalisation of cross-border judicial procedures, in particular the use of videoconferencing, as mentioned also in the European e-Justice Strategy (2024-2028) of the Council of the European Union;
- Implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/2844 by the national authorities of the Member States;
- Increased awareness in the judiciary of the need for digitalisation of justice and the use of projects digitalising justice and showcasing concrete use cases of digitial solutions
- Improved participation in the various e-justice interconnection projects with the aim of achieving full EU coverage
- Expected results are:
- For priority 2 – victims’ rights and procedural rights
- Expected results under the area of procedural rights are:
- Improved knowledge of the legislation and administrative practices related to specific provisions of the EU acquis regulating the rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings including their application in the context of developments in the digitalisation of justice;
- Increased capacity of national practitioners to address issues related to such rights;
- Strengthened cooperation and exchange of information between competent national authorities, NGOs and professional organisations in relation to the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime and emerging challenges in this field;
- Harmonisation of the administrative practices in relation to the relevant legislation in different Member States.
- Reduced risks of breaches of fair trial rights;
- Expected results under the area of procedural rights are:
Eligibility Criteria
- 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
For more information, visit EC.
