Funding programme

The Justice programme is the EU’s funding programme to support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

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Call overview

This call aims to facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

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Call detail

The call for proposals' objectives are to facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, and promote the rule of law, independence and impartiality of the judiciary, including by supporting the efforts to improve the effectiveness of national justice systems, and the effective enforcement of decisions.

There are three priorities for 2025:

 
1. Judicial cooperation in civil matters
2. Judicial cooperation in criminal matters
3. Support to the Member States for the setting up and strengthening of national networks active in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters

Read more about the four priorities in the call document.

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Activities funded

This topic will cover the following activities:

- facilitating cooperation between competent authorities and agencies, legal practitioners and/or service providers (including multi-disciplinary networks at international, national, regional or local levels);

- mutual learning, identifying and exchange of best practices, development of working methods which may be transferable to other participating countries;

- analytical activities, including data collection, statistics, surveys, research, etc.;

- exchange and provision of information and development of information tools;

- capacity building for professionals;

- dissemination and awareness raising activities;

- training activities can also be funded under this call, as long as they are of ancillary nature and not the main purpose of the project

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Eligibility

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 (list of participating countries)

In addition, under the priorities 1 and 2:

a) Organisations which are profit-oriented must submit applications in partnership with public entities or private non-profit-oriented organisations;

b) Projects must be transnational and involve organisations from at least two participating countries.

In addition, under the priority 3:

a) In the area of civil and commercial matters, the application must be submitted by the officially appointed members of EJN in civil and commercial matters, or by the national authorities, courts and professional associations representing the officially appointed members of EJN in civil and commercial matters;

b) In the area of criminal matters, the application must be submitted by national authorities, courts, prosecution services and professional associations representing them;

c) Only one application per participating country will be accepted. Projects do not need to have a transnational aspect.

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Consortium composition

For priorities 1 and 2, proposals must be submitted by a consortium complying with the following conditions:

• The applications must involve minimum 2 entities (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from 2 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).

For priority 3, proposals by single applicants are also allowed.

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Duration

Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months.

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Budget

For priority 1 (civil matters): Project budgets (requested grant amount) cannot be lower than € 75 000. There is no upper limit.

For priority 2 (criminal matters) and priority 3 (EJN civil and criminal): Project budgets (requested grant amount) are expected to range between EUR 75 000 and EUR 350 000 per project.