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Call key data
Call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects in the fields of e-Justice, victims’ rights and procedural rights
Funding Program
Justice Programme
Call number
JUST-2023-JACC-EJUSTICE
deadlines
Opening
04.05.2023
Deadline
04.10.2023 17:00
Funding rate
90%
Call budget
€ 10,100,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
minimum € 100,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
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.
Call objectives
This biennial call for proposals, under the Access to justice specific objective, covers two priorities:
1. e-Justice priority
The key objective under the e-Justice priority is to contribute to achieving the goals of the Commission Communication on the Digitalisation of Justice in the EU and the Council European e-Justice Strategy and Action Plan 2019-2023 by supporting the implementation of e-Justice projects at the European and national level (as far as they have a European dimension).
Primary priority will be given to projects aiming at joining or enhancing existing or on-going e-Justice projects.
Secondary priority will be given to the development of concrete cases on the use of artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology in the justice area.
2. Victims’ rights and procedural rights priority
Projects to be funded under this priority should:
- contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU criminal law in the area of the rights of persons suspected or accused of crime;
- contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU law in the area of the rights of victims of crime in line with the priorities set up by the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025).
In both areas (procedural rights and victims’ rights), actions may include possible future EU initiatives regarding gaps in EU legislation where a further need for EU action is identified. 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 war crimes shall also be considered. Successful projects shall ensure easy access to and wide dissemination of their results.
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Expected effects and impacts
For the e-justice priority:
- Addressing the relevant policy goals set out in the Commission Communication on the digitalisation of justice in the EU;
- Improved participation, with the aim of achieving full EU coverage concerning the various e-Justice interconnection projects;
- Opportunities allowing Member States to engage in new pilot initiatives, in particular those identified in the European e-Justice Action Plan (2019-2023);
- Improved awareness of on-going and future e-Justice activities.
For the victims’ rights and procedural rights priority:
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, and 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;
- Harmonisation of the administrative practices applicable in relation to the relevant legislation in different Member States;
- Reduced risks of breaches of fair trial rights;
- Compatibility of the national legal framework and regulations linked to the rights of persons suspected or accused in criminal proceedings with EU acquis on procedural rights.
Expected results under the area of victims’ rights are:
- Increased capacity of national practitioners to address issues related to the rights of victims of crime;
- Improved cooperation among the competent national authorities, NGOs and/or professional organisations in the field of victims' rights, including for compensation in cross-border cases;
- Improved public awareness and knowledge about victims' rights at both EU and national level (including amongst the most vulnerable groups);
- Improved knowledge about specific provisions of the EU acquis regulating issues such as referring victims to the relevant support services, victims' access to information in the area of victims' rights, individual assessment of victims' needs, use of procedural means to protect victims during criminal trial, including use of remote hearings and video testimonies;
- Compatibility of the national legal framework and administrative practice related to victims' rights with the relevant EU acquis;
- Improved support services to victims through:
- increased number of victims' support organisations providing general and specialist support services to victims of crimes and their family members, and of targeted and integrated specialist support services for victims with specific needs such as victims of domestic violence, victims of other forms of gender-based violence, child victims, victims of hate crime and migrant victims of crime, victims of war crimes in a targeted, gender-sensitive and integrated manner that regroups psychological and social aid with a cooperation with police and judicial authorities; o improved access of victims to such support services;
- increased quality of the services (including gender-sensitive, victim-centred and trauma-informed approaches to services) provided by victims support organisations;
- Increased awareness of the problematic of relations between victims and offenders including actions aimed at improving victims’ access to justice and decreased re-offending via tools such as restorative justice.
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Expected results
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 maps the potential different impact of the project and its activities on women and men as well as girls and boys in all their diversity. Thereby, unintended negative effects of the intervention on either gender should be forestalled (do no-harm approach). To this end, applicants are encouraged to consult the key questions listed on the EIGE website, when conducting their gender analysis. A gender-sensitive approach should be taken to the identification of best practices, data collection, including sex-disaggregated statistics, and information dissemination. All communication activities should forestall discrimination, victimisation and stereotyping of women and men. Mutual learning, analytical and training activities should incorporate a gender equality perspective, and promote gender balanced participation in trainings.
For the e-justice priority:
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.
The requirements of the eIDAS Regulation, the use of the Digital Building Blocks developed under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme, as well as the results from the e-CODEX project and ISA Core vocabularies, should be taken into account if and where relevant.
Supporting activities relating to project management, content preparation, editorial work, communication, promotion and dissemination are also eligible for funding.
For the victims’ rights and procedural rights priority, 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.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Albania (Shqipëria), 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
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)
For the e-Justice priority:
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) and from at least 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 the victims’ rights and procedural rights priority:
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
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).
other eligibility criteria
The indicative budget for the e-Justice priority is € 4,100,000.00. The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than € 100,000.00. The maximum grant amount is € 800,000.00 per project.
The indicative budget for the victims’ rights and procedural rights priority is € 6,000,000.00. The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than € 100,000.00. There is no upper limit.
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
12-24 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
- 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.
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