CALL FOR EVIDENCE

FOR A STOCKTAKING EXERCISE

This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders about the Commission's work, so they can provide feedback and participate effectively in consultation activities.

We ask these groups to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have.

Title of THE STOCKTAKING

Taking stock of the Judicial Training Strategy 2021-2024

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG Justice and Consumers Unit A1 (Digital Transition and Judicial Training)

Indicative timetable

(planned start date and completion date)

Planned start date: Q1 2024

Planned completion date: Q4 2024

Additional information

https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_european_judicial_training-120-en.do 

This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Political context, purpose and scope of the evaluation

Political context

The Lisbon Treaty gave the EU a role in training judiciary and judicial staff in civil and criminal matters. European Judicial Training is aimed at equipping judicial practitioners with the needed expertise to ensure correct application and uniform interpretation of EU law in all EU Member States. It is implemented at national and Union level.

In 2011, the Commission adopted a communication "Building trust in EU-wide justice - A new dimension to European judicial training", setting out its long-term training objectives for justice practitioners by 2020 (COM(2011) 551 final ).Currently, the EU supports judicial training in line with the Judicial Training Strategy 2021 – 2024, which is built on the results of the evaluation of the 2011-2020 training strategy (SWD(2019) 380 final).

The current Judicial Training Strategy is mainly funded through the 2021-2027 Justice Programme (Regulation EU 2021/693), for which the Commission is conducting a parallel interim evaluation to identify its preliminary achievements and any issues that might possibly need to be addressed within the second half of the running programme and/or as part of its follow-up programme.

Purpose and scope

The Judicial Training Strategy will expire at the end of 2024. To prepare a new training strategy, there is a need to take stock of the impact of the financed judicial training on improving the knowledge about and the correct application and uniform interpretation of EU law and of whether and to what extent the coordination, support, monitoring, and follow-up undertaken by the Commission services contributed to this impact. The stocktaking will cover the years from 2021 to 2023 included. Geographically, it will consider training activities that have taken place in all participating countries, particularly all EU Member States, but also including Western Balkan candidate and potential candidate countries.

The results will be published in a Staff Working Document, which will also set out key issues that might have hampered the Judicial Training Strategy in equipping judicial practitioners with the needed expertise to ensure correct application and uniform interpretation of EU law in all EU Member States.

B. Better regulation

Consultation strategy

Targeted consultations will be undertaken during the first half of 2024 to obtain input from all interested stakeholders. They will contribute to identifying lessons learned as well as new needs and possible improvements to EU judicial training.

Feedback to this call for evidence would be expected on:

-whether and to what extent judicial training financed under the Judicial Training Strategy had a real impact on improving the quality of knowledge on the correct application and uniform interpretation of EU law of the judges’, prosecutors’, and judiciary staff?

-whether and to what extent, this knowledge was practically relevant and applied by judges, prosecutors, and judiciary staff in their professional work?

-whether and to what extent the coordination, support, monitoring, and follow-up undertaken by the Commission services were helpful or could be improved?

-which new learning needs have emerged and should be covered by a future Judicial Training Strategy, in particular in the area of the digitalisation of Justice?

Why we are consulting? 

The purpose of the consultation is to strengthen the evidence base for the stocktaking by gathering views of all relevant stakeholders.

Target audience

The main stakeholder groups addressed include:

-judicial professionals: judges and prosecutors or judicial authorities, along with court and prosecution staff, lawyers, notaries, and bailiffs; organisations, networks or associations representing justice professions, at EU and at national level; public authorities and ministries responsible for the judiciary.

-prison staff and probation officers, mediators, court experts, insolvency practitioners and legal interpreters/translators,

-training providers including professional networks and representations at national and EU level, including the European Judicial Training Network; public authorities of the Member States that are members of the European Judicial Training Network,

-other actors, such as the Academy of European Law and the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA-Luxembourg).

Data collection and methodology

Besides this call for evidence and other consultation instruments, the stocktaking analysis of the Judicial Training Strategy will be based on the following sources:

-Targeted interviews and structured questionnaires to assess the quality and impact of trainings under the Judicial Training Strategy.

-The interim and ex-post evaluation reports of EU programmes such as the Justice Programme and related programmes, supporting documentation including projects and contracts to be retrieved from beneficiaries under the Judicial Training Strategy, the annual judicial training reports of the Commission since 2020, the evaluation reports on the individual training projects and activities provided under the Judicial Training Strategy, the annual and final reports of training providers (such the European Judicial Training Network or the Academy of European Law) as well as studies and research to be retrieved through desk research. Statistical data on participation will be collected from the training providers, especially from the European Judicial Training Network ETJN, but also from other beneficiaries of EC support.

This stocktaking will be supported by an external contractor.