A long-term strategy adopted by the Commission for the training of justice professionals.
The evaluation shows that between 2011 and 2017, more than 800,000 legal practitioners, half of all EU legal practitioners, were trained on European Union law at national and EU level. The yearly number of participants increased by 137% and the exchanges for judges and prosecutors in courts or prosecution offices of other EU countries increased by 190%. An Annual report on EU judicial training supports the implementation of the strategy, triggering its results.
EU financial support for judicial training almost doubled between 2011 and 2017, from €14.5 million in 2011 to €27.3 million in 2017, amounting to more than €150 million over the period. This financial support made possible the exponential growth of the activity of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the principal platform and promoter for the training and exchange of knowledge of the European judiciary. It contributed to support quality by better channelling funds to good quality projects and drafting good training practices for training providers.
The strategy contributed to raise the knowledge on EU law while reinforcing mutual trust between legal practitioners. It also confirmed the need to better reach some categories of justice professionals and geographical areas. The need to further focus on topics such as the Rule of Law, Fundamental Rights, judge craft and legal terminology and to remain flexible to address continuously changing training needs was also stressed.
Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality said, “Training of justice professionals on EU law is necessary for a correct knowledge and a consistent application of laws. We have improved mutual trust not only in cross-border judicial proceedings but also in all EU legal systems. A broader reach of all justice professions of Member States remains essential and judicial training will be a key tool in the years ahead”.
The current judicial training strategy is based on a Communication released in 2011 and will elapse in 2020. The evaluation includes a stock of the objectives achieved and will be a basis for designing a post-2020 strategy for European judicial training. The evaluation of the 2011-2020 European judicial training strategy and its summary are presented online.
The European Commission Staff Working Document on the Evaluation of the European judicial training strategy is available here