EU justice policy

The primary aim of the EU’s justice policy is to create an EU-wide area of justice based on mutual cooperation in both civil and criminal law. This means building up mutual trust among EU Member States’ courts and national administrations and their mutual recognition of judicial decisions.

In the area of civil law, the EU has introduced a wide range of measures which aim to give citizens greater legal certainty and easy and effective access to justice when they are involved in issues of a cross-border nature such as disputes, divorces, etc.

In the EU, where people and goods can move around freely, it has been a high priority to establish an EU-wide area of justice. To address the challenges posed by crime, the EU has introduced laws that aim to safeguard the rights of victims, suspects and prisoners cross-border cases (such as on mutual legal assistance, the mutual recognition of decisions in criminal cases and the European arrest warrant).

In both criminal and civil law, measures have been adopted to:

• simplify procedures enabling national courts to cooperate with their equivalents in other Member States;
• train professionals involved in cross-border cases;
• develop information and communication technologies (such as videoconferencing) in the EU’s justice system (e-Justice).

The European Commission will manage 2 funding programmes over the 2021-2027 period:

• the Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme for projects fostering European values at the local, national and transnational levels, with an allocation of €1.6 billion from the EU’s multiannual financial framework for the 2021-2027 period. It has 4 aims:
  • promoting equality and rights,
  • promoting citizens’ commitment and participation in the EU’s democratic life,
  • fighting violence,
  • communicating and disseminating EU values among civil society organisations;
• the Justice programme, with an allocation of €305 million. It has 4 aims:
  • to facilitate and support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, to promote the rule of law and the independence and impartiality of the judiciary,
  • to support and promote judicial training, with a view to fostering a common legal, judicial and rule of law culture,
  • to facilitate effective and non-discriminatory access to justice for all, including by electronic means,
  • to support the rights of victims of crime as well as the procedural rights of suspects and accused persons.

SEE ALSO

• Charter of Fundamental Rights
• Eurojust
• European arrest warrant
• European Commission
• European judicial network in criminal matters (EJN)
• Fight against organised crime
• Judicial cooperation in civil matters
• Police and judicial cooperation in civil matters
• Rule of law
• Better protection for victims in criminal proceedings (summary)
• Court jurisdiction in legal cases involving different EU countries (summary)
• Law applicable to divorce and legal separation (summary)
• Legal aid in civil and commercial matters (summary)
• Promoting videoconferencing between EU countries in the area of justice (summary)
• Right to access a lawyer in criminal and European warrant arrest proceedings (summary)
• Strengthening victims’ rights in the EU (summary)
• Taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters (until 2022) (summary)
• Taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters – from 1 July 2022 (summary)
• Transmission of judicial and extrajudicial documents between EU countries (until 2022) (summary)
• Transmitting judicial and extrajudicial documents between EU countries – from 1 July 2022 (summary)
• Uncontested claims – European enforcement order (summary)
• Justice and fundamental rights (European Commission)
• European e-Justice portal (website).