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Call key data
Call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects on training of justice professionals covering civil law, criminal law or fundamental rights
Funding Program
Justice Programme
Call number
JUST-2024-JTRA
deadlines
Opening
12.12.2023
Deadline
21.03.2024 17:00
Funding rate
90%
Call budget
€ 4,075,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
min. € 100,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
In line with the Commission Communication ‘Ensuring justice in the EU — a European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024’7, the primary objective of the call is to support training promoting the digitalisation of national justice systems. Training funded under this call are expected to build the “digital capacity” of justice professionals and promote the digital transition of judicial training methodologies, while also contributing to the effective and coherent application of EU law in the areas of civil law, criminal law, and fundamental rights, including non-discrimination, equality, and the rule of law.
Call objectives
Funding will be provided for training activities and tools for training providers, as described below, in order to support training activities for:
- members of the judiciary and judicial staff, meaning judges, prosecutors, court and prosecution offices’ staff, other justice professionals associated with the judiciary, such as lawyers in private practice, notaries, bailiffs, insolvency practitioners and mediators, as well as court interpreters and translators, prison and probation staff; and/or
- justice professionals in initial / induction training, and/or
- multipliers, such as judicial trainers or EU law court coordinators, where there are guarantees that the multipliers will pass on their knowledge to justice professionals in a systematic way, and/or
- cross-professional training, in order to stimulate discussions across justice professions about the application of EU law and contribute to a European judicial culture across professional boundaries on precisely identified topics of relevance to the concerned professions.
This call supports training of members of the judiciary and judicial staff, meaning judges, prosecutors, court and prosecution offices’ staff, other justice professionals associated with the judiciary, such as lawyers in private practice, notaries, bailiffs, insolvency practitioners and mediators, as well as court interpreters and translators, prison and probation staff. Non-justice professionals cannot participate in the training activities as participants whose participation costs are eligible unless there is a duly justified exception acknowledged at the moment of the grant award.
Each project should describe the planned participants’ selection process. When identifying its target group (planned participants), the applicant shall consider gender balance, striving for gender parity among participants to the extent possible.
When deciding on the allocation of grants, a fair balance between topics and/or target audience shall be sought. Moreover, priority will be given to projects that do not duplicate existing training material or on-going projects but that act in complementarity and/or that innovate.
Training can cover one of more of the following topics with the general aim of building the “digital capacity” of justice professionals on the application of the relevant substantive and procedural law:
- Fundamental rights, including non-discrimination, equality, and the rule of law:
- Digitalisation of justice as a means of facilitating effective judicial protection and access to justice in a manner that leaves no one behind (Art. 47 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union)
- Correct application of EU Data protection law in judicial proceedings and practices including training on legal and practical issues raised by the processing of personal data and the identification of potential data protection issues.
- Civil law:
- The correct application of Regulation (EU) 2020/1783 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence and Regulation (EU) 2020/1784 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents;
- Correct application of the consumer remedies for contracts on digital content and services, including when consumer provide data, as well a goods with digital elements, as regulated in Directive (EU) 2019/771 and Directive (EU) 2019/770;
- Correct application of the EU rules on the platform economy contained in Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market for Digital Services (DSA) and Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 on contestable and fair market in the digital sector (DMA);
- The correct application of the EU rules on access to and sharing of data in the data economy as contained in the Regulation on harmonised rules on fair access and use of data (Data Act) to be adopted by the end of 2023;
- Company mobility: cross-border mergers, divisions and conversions, as well as the cross-border usage of company documents from business registers and via the Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS), under Directive (EU) 2019/2121.
- The use of videoconferencing in cross-border civil and commercial matters, in particular the remote participation of parties, witnesses and remote hearing of children;
- Application of digital tools relevant for the justice area where such tools exist at national level, for example: the use of digital real-time interpreter; tools for anonymisation and pseudonymization of judicial decisions; transcription tools for recording of proceedings and the documentation of the evidence gathered by the court (Speech-to-text and Text-to-Speech); tools for legal analytics of e.g. case law and big data sources; tools for calculating entitlements to compensation, e.g. passenger rights or similar; tools for automatic case allocation.
- Criminal law:
- The correct application of the e-Evidence Digital Exchange System (e-EDES) in the context of the European Investigation Order (Directive 2014/41/EU) and mutual legal assistance;
- The use of the joint investigation teams collaboration platform established by Regulation (EU) 2023/969;
- The use of secure communication channels for information exchange in terrorism cases between national competent authorities and Eurojust for based on Regulation (EU) 2023/2131 and e-EDES technology;
- The use of videoconferencing in cross-border criminal matters;
- Application of digital tools relevant for the justice area where such tools exist at national level, for example: the use of digital real-time interpreter; tools for anonymisation and pseudonymization of judicial decisions; transcription tools for recording of proceedings and the documentation of the evidence gathered by the court (Speech-to-text and Text-to-Speech); tools for legal analytics of e.g. case law and big data sources, tools for automatic case allocation.
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Expected effects and impacts
- Support the digitalisation of national justice systems by strengthening the “digital capacity” of justice professionals;
- Contribute to the digital transition of judicial training methodologies;
- Increased expertise among justice professionals on the scope of application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and on existing remedies and redress, in particular in the process of digitalisation of national justice systems
- Improved mutual trust between justice professionals in cross-border judicial cooperation;
- Increased knowledge of EU civil law, criminal law and fundamental rights related instruments among justice professionals and the methods to apply them;
- Improved cooperation of training providers of the different justice professions.
- Increased knowledge among justice professionals on victims’ rights, in particular of women victims of gender-based violence, including improved methods of communication with victims in a gender-sensitive, impartial, respectful, and professional manner.
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Expected results
Each project should include training activities that are tailored to the daily professional needs, practical, interactive and accessible to all learners, including practitioners with disabilities, irrespective of the format(s) of the activities: face-to-face, blended, hybrid or online format.
The gender equality perspective should be taken into account when designing the ‘format’ of the training activities and gender balanced participation in training activities must be promoted and ensured. Moreover, a gender-sensitive approach should be taken for the identification of best practices, data collection (including sex-disaggregated statistics) and information dissemination.
Training activities must include participants from different participating countries. For face-to-face or hybrid activities situation, travel and accommodation costs of the participants should be planned.
This call may support training activities such as:
- training activities on the use of digital justice tools, in particular with regard to the priority topics set out above;
- pilot innovative online training using latest methodologies and tools;
- organisation of interactive, practice-oriented seminars;
- multilateral exchanges between justice professionals;
- cross-border initial training activities (online, face-to-face activities or exchanges), covering as many Member States as possible, to create a common European legal culture from the moment of entering a justice profession;
- joint study visits to European courts (such as the CJEU and the ECHR) by justice professionals from as many different Member States as possible;
- creation of training material, whether for presential learning, blended learning or elearning, ready-to-use either by trainers or by practitioners for self-learning, in combination with the organisation of training activities, including the creation of ‘Capsule’ e-training (short, up to date, tightly focused) to address justice professionals’ immediate needs in the context of a concrete case;
- update and/or translation of existing training material possibly combined with adaptation to national settings, in combination with the organisation of cross-border training activities;
- creation of tools or activities for training providers (for example: train-the-trainers on active and modern adult learning techniques, train-the-trainers on online training skills and tools, tools to support the organisation of cross-border training, etc.), including to facilitate their cooperation at EU-level;
- evaluation of the organised training activities on the basis of the participants’ satisfaction, increased competence and, where possible, impact on their performance.
These training activities will be funded only when there is no equivalent activity which is already covered by the operating grant of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN).
Training activities can take place in the context of initial training (pre-service or induction period – for example training activities to familiarise newly appointed justice professionals with EU legislation and judicial cooperation instruments) or continuous training of the participants (for example more specialised training activities for practicing justice professionals).
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Ukraine (Україна)
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:
- the applications must involve minimum two entities (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from different eligible countries;
- the consortium must include at least one public body, private non-profit organisation or international organisation as beneficiary or affiliated entity.
other eligibility criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries
- 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)
- Organisations which are profit-oriented must submit applications in partnership with public entities or private non-profit-oriented organisation
- Applications must be transnational and involve organisations from at least two participating countries
- the EU grant applied for cannot be lower than € 100 000
Specific cases:
- Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e., sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.
- Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
- Entities composed of members (like for instance networks) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. Please note that if the action will be implemented by the members, they should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible).
- Beneficiaries from countries with ongoing negotiations may participate in the call and can sign grants if the negotiations are concluded before grant signature (with retroactive effect, if provided in the agreement).
- Special rules apply for certain entities (e.g. entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05). Such entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).
Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months. Applications for longer projects are accepted provided that a thorough explanation for the longer duration is provided in the proposal. The maximum duration is 36 months. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
between 12 and 24 months
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have three parts:
- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
- Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
- Part C (to be filled in directly online) containing additional project data, including mandatory indicators
Mandatory annexes and supporting documents (some templates available to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded):
- detailed budget table (template available in the Portal Submission System – to be re-uploaded filled out in the format xlsx);
- CVs (standard) of core project team (or, where the key personnel is not yet known, a job profile description)
- activity report of last year of the coordinator (unless it is a public body)
- list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (template available in Part B)
- for participants with activities involving children: their child protection policy covering the four areas described in the Keeping Children Safe Child Safeguarding Standards
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
The grant will be a lump sum grant.
Call documents
Call document JUST-2024-JTRACall document JUST-2024-JTRA(675kB)
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