Justice Programme

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The Justice Programme is running from 2021 to 2027. It provides funding to support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters such as training to judges and other legal practitioners and effective access to justice for citizens and businesses. It contributes to the further development of a European area of justice based on the rule of law, including independence and impartiality of the judiciary, on mutual recognition, mutual trust and judicial cooperation. It is strengthening democracy, rule of law, and fundamental rights. Funding opportunities Calls for proposal Open and upcoming calls for proposal under the Justice Programme. Find opportunities Funded projects and results Funded projects Budget and performance Includes performance highlights, key performance indicators, and the performance framework and assessment. Programme duration 2021-2027 Total budget 2021-2027 € 0.30 billion (ℹ) (current prices) Relevant regulation Regulation (EU) 2021/693 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Justice programme 2021-2027 This programme supports judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. Open calls for proposal New calls for submitting project proposals in the area of justice and CERV have been published! Check out the opportunities to receive EU funding on the funding and tender opportunities portal. Below you will also find a list of recent calls for proposal and grants on justice and judicial matters. Funded projects Click on a closed call and go to ‘Funded project list’ to see which projects we support. You can also contact the project coordinator. Funding areas Explore the specific areas of interest DG Justice and Consumers is working on: Justice programme (JUST) Civil Justice Judicial training Protecting the rights of suspects and accused e-Justice Concrete examples of achievements 5.03 million exchanges of information occurred in 2024 in the European criminal records information system. 30 186 justice professionals were trained in 2023 through the justice programme’s financial support for cross-border training activities and thanks to the European Judicial Training Network. 2.70 million visits were made to pages addressing the need for information on cross-border civil and criminal cases on the European e-Justice Portal in 2024. 375 civil-society organisations involved in grants and operating grants funded under the three specific objectives of the justice programme, were reached by support and capacity-building activities in the 2021-2024 period. More than 3 million peopleare expected to be reached via activities funded by the justice programme in the 2021-2024 period. Rationale and design of the programme The Justice programme supports a broad range of beneficiaries that play an important role in the development of an EU area of justice. This includes, primarily, members of the judiciary and judicial staff, but also public authorities, academic/research institutes and training bodies, along with civil-society and non-profit organisations. Budget programming (million EUR): 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 Total Financial programming 46.7 43.6 39.8 41.8 41.8 41.7 41.4 296.8 NextGenerationEU 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Decommitments made available again(*) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Contributions from other countries and entities 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 Total 46.7 43.6 39.8 42.0 41.8 41.7 41.4 297.0 (*) Only Article 15(3) of the Financial Regulation. Cumulative budget implementation at the end of 2024 (million EUR): Implementation Budget Implementation rate Commitments 171.9 297.0 57.9% Payments 128.6 43.3% Implementation and performance Key performance indicators The indicators below represent a selection of the core performance indicators from the programme. The links to the full set of core performance indicators and their associated metadata can be found in the Related Links section at the bottom of this webpage. Baseline Progress Target Results Assessment Exchanges of information in the European criminal records information system 4.1 million 78% 6 million in 2027 Average result 2021-2024: 4.7 million compared to a target of 6 million On track Members of the judiciary and judicial staff who have participated in training activities 0 > 100% 15 000 in 2027 30 186 compared to a target of 15 000 On track Hits on the European e-Justice Portal / pages addressing the need for information on cross-border civil and criminal cases 1.4 million 82% 2.8 million in 2027 Average results 2021-2014: 2.3 million compared to a target of 2.8 million On track Facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities 0 82% 105 in 2027 86 compared to a target of 105 On track Support and promote judicial training: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities 0 86% 154 in 2027 133 compared to a target of 154 On track Facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all: civil-society organisations reached by support and capacity-building activities 0 57% 273 in 2027 156 compared to a target of 273 On track The Justice programme’s implementation in 2024 ran smoothly. Under the two open calls for proposals (action grants on judicial training and judicial cooperation) with a total budget of EUR 9.9 million, 63 project proposals were submitted, out of which 22 have been awarded funding. The programme funded operating grants to support the 15 justice framework partners and the European Judicial Training Network. In 2024, the programme continued to support the Council of Europe in setting up a network of prison-monitoring bodies and in the delivery of the SPACE report, an annual report on prison statistics providing clear insights into the detention situations in the Member States. Around 100 procurement contracts, for a total of EUR 10.3 million, were concluded in 2024 to support key EU policies in the justice field through activities such as a special Eurobarometer survey on the rule of law, the EU justice scoreboard, and various studies and EU-level conferences. The introduction of lump sums for all justice action grant calls occurred only recently, and in 2024 applicants continued to require additional support, notably in defining clear, measurable outputs, including providing more detailed descriptions of deliverables and justifying cost estimations in the detailed budget table. This support was crucial, as the EU’s contribution is now paid according to the implementation of the work packages rather than as a reimbursement of costs. Indicators for specific objective 1: judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters In 2024, the Member States exchanged 5.03 million messages through the European criminal records information system(a decentralised information technology system operated by the central authorities of the Member States). This shows steady growth since the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. In total, in the 2021-2024 period, 86 civil-society organisations, involved in grants and operating grants funded under this specific objective (i.e. judicial cooperation), were reached by support and capacity-building activities. Indicators for specific objective 2: judicial training The justice programme is a key player in the area of judicial training, where the results demonstrate an improvement in the impact of the programme’s measures in this field. In 2023, 30 186 justice professionals took part in training supported by the justice programme (around 47.3% of all those who received training on EU law (co-)funded by the EU that year), which marks an increase of around 25% compared to the previous year. Moreover, under the specific European Judicial Training Network annual training programmes, also supported via the programme, the number of participants increased to 9 320 and the cost-to-serve ratio (i.e. the price per person for one training day offered by the European Judicial Training Network) decreased to EUR 285.32, which is a very good average price (down from EUR 305 in the previous period). The data for 2024 will be available by December 2025, following the preparation of the annual report on European judicial training. In total, in the 2021-2024 period, 133 civil-society organisations, involved in grants and operating grants funded under this specific objective (i.e. judicial training), were reached by support and capacity-building activities. Indicators for specific objective 3: access to justice Concerning the number of hits on the pages of the European e-Justice Portal relating to cross-border civil and criminal topics, which gives an indication of the need for information on these issues and of the relevance of these web pages in ensuring access to justice for all EU citizens, the 2024 milestone was achieved and surpassed in 2022. In total, in the 2021-2024 period, 156 civil-society organisations involved in grants and operating grants funded under this specific objective (access to justice) were reached by support and capacity-building activities. Overall, in 2024 only, over 470 000 people are expected to have been reached by activities organised by projects funded under all the three specific objectives of the justice programme, including activities organised by the programme’s framework partners. Data are based on estimates provided by grant beneficiaries, to be verified at the reporting stage. According to data on projects awarded in the first four years of implementation, more than 3 million people should be reached via activities funded by the justice programme. Contribution to horizontal priorities Contribution to green budgeting priorities All projects funded under the justice programme must comply with EU policy interests and priorities, including in the environment field. Beneficiaries are always invited to limit the number of people from each co-beneficia