COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Accompanying the document REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS assessing the implementation and achievements of the 2014-2020 justice programme
Date: 2022-03-22
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: EU financial instrument, EU programme, access to the courts, commitment of expenditure, drug addiction, fundamental rights, independence of the judiciary, judicial cooperation in civil matters in the EU, judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU, rule of law, vocational training

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 22.3.2022  SWD(2022) 69 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  Accompanying the document              REPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS   assessing the implementation and achievements of the 2014-2020 justice programme {COM(2022) 121 final} - {SWD(2022) 64 final}  
 
 
Background 

This  staff  working  document  accompanies  the  report  from  the  European  Commission  to  the 
European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European  Economic  and  Social  Committee  and  the 
Committee of the Regions in accordance with the obligation specified in Article 14.2(c) of  the 
legal  base  of  the  justice  programme1.  The  Regulation  requires  the  European  Commission  to 
provide  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  with  an  ex-post  evaluation  report  for 
programme  by  31  December  2021.  The  report  shall  assess  the  long-term  impact  and  the 
sustainability  of  the  programme’s  effects,  to  inform  a  decision  on  a  subsequent  justice 
programme.  In  2021,  however,  a  considerable  number  of  projects,  around  30  %,  remain  still 
ongoing.  This  situation  is  also  reinforced  by  the  COVID-19  pandemic,  which  has  caused  the 
extension of the duration of several projects.  

For these reasons, and to have a meaningful evaluation of the programme’s long-term results and 
impacts, the ex- post evaluation will be carried out in two parts. This staff working document and 
the report represent the first part of the evaluation. It is based on the currently available data and 
assesses the programme’s achievements so far. While the new justice programme 2021-2027 was 
already adopted, based amongst others on the interim evaluation of the justice programme 2014-
2020, this first part of the ex-post evaluation of the previous programme will be of added value 
to shed light on potential areas for improvement in the new justice programme’s implementation 
phase. The second part of the evaluation will be carried out  at a later stage, once all final data 
will be available and together with the interim evaluation of the succeeding  justice programme 
(2021-2027).  This  second  part  will  assess  the  long-term  impacts  and  sustainability  of  the 
programme’s  effects  and  will  provide  recommendations  for  the  Multiannual  Financial 
Framework after 2027, as appropriate.  

The staff working document outlines the justice programme’s objectives, its implementation and 
intervention  logic  as  well  as  the  needs  it  addresses.  The  staff  working  document  covers  the 
evaluation  questions  concerning 
the  programme’s  effectiveness,  efficiency,  relevance, 
coherence, EU added value, equity and scope for simplification. In terms of geographical scope, 
the  evaluation  covers  all  participating  countries,  namely  all  EU  Member  States,  except  for 
Denmark and the UK, and when relevant Albania and Montenegro. 

Description of the justice programme 

The  justice  programme  focuses  on  the  creation  of  a  European  area  of  justice  in  four  areas 
corresponding to its specific objectives:  judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters; access 
to  justice  for  all;  judicial  training  and  drugs  prevention  policy.  Compared  to  its  predecessor 
programmes,  its specific objectives  tackle the issues from  a cross-cutting  perspective. This  has 
resulted  in  a  more  streamlined  Programme  providing  flexible  support  to  stakeholders.  The 
European Commission implemented the programme via direct management. 

Implementation of the programme 

1 REGULATION (EU) No 1382/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 December 2013 

establishing a Justice Programme for the period 2014 to 2020 

1 

 
 
                                                           
were 

awarded 

throughout 

The programme's initial budget for 2014-2020 is EUR 377, 6m. In total 118 calls for proposals 
were launched between 2014-2020. Most of these calls covered the judicial cooperation in civil 
and criminal matters’ specific objective, with 40 calls. Overall, 569 action grants and operating 
grants 
programme.  
Training activities were a key component of funded projects. Between 2014 and 2018, there was 
a  relatively  strong  prevalence  of  higher  secondary  education  institutions  among  beneficiaries. 
However, from  2018, public institutions and non-profit organisations became the programme’s 
beneficiaries.  
most 
Procurement  was  an  important  funding  mechanism  for  a  number  of  specific  objectives, 
amounting to a total of 417 contracts over the entire period. In total, approximately EUR 81,7 
million  was  allocated  to  procurement  contracts  and  services.  The  most  common  type  of 
procurement  was  information  and  communication  technology  tools  and  other  IT-related 
activities, such as the maintenance of the European Criminal Records Information System. 

frequent 

the 

Evaluation results 

Based  on  the  results  of  the  evaluation,  the  justice  programme  continues  to  be  relevant  to  the 
(changing) needs of stakeholders and the general population. This was ensured via its flexible 
programming  nature,  including  the  annual  prioritisation  of  emerging  policy  needs  and  issues.  
Overall,  based  on  the  collected  qualitative  evidence,  the  implementation  of  the  justice 
programme was effective and contributed to the achievement of the objectives. In particular, this 
success  was  due  to  the  high  level  of  alignment  of  the  funded  projects  with  the  needs  of  the 
groups  they  target.  Vice-versa,  the  funded  organisations,  were  relevant  to  achieving  the 
programme’s  specific  objectives.  These  factors,  combined  with  the  high  quality  of  projects, 
ensured the programme’s effectiveness.  

The  conducted  research  shows  that  the  projects  were  largely  successful  in  implementing  the 
planned activities and almost all finalised projects have achieved the expected results.  

Progress has been also tracked by the indicators identified in the Regulation in particular: 

 

the  cumulative  number  (not  just  through  the  justice  programme)  of  legal  professionals 
receiving  training,  on  EU  law  or  law  of  another  Member  State,  including  civil  justice, 
criminal  justice  and  fundamental  rights.  The  2020  target  of  700  000  trainees  was  achieved 
ahead of schedule, with over one million legal practitioners trained in 2018. 

Overall,  the  evidence  gathered  suggests  that  the  justice  programme  has  contributed  to  the 
creation of a European area of justice. Qualitative evidence collected by the study suggests that 
benefits of the programme outweigh the costs. 

The  evaluation  also  identified  a  number  of  areas  for  improvement  for  successor  programmes, 
such as: (i) a closer alignment of the timing of the application cycle with stakeholders’ needs; (ii) 
improvement  of  the  monitoring  framework  in  order  to  more  systematically  collect  information 
on  outputs,  results  and  targets  achieved;  (iii)  targeted  activities  to  foster  a  wider  geographical 
spread  of  funds  across  participating  countries;  (iv)  dedicated  initiatives  to  facilitate  the 
application process for organisations that sometimes lack the capacity, expertise and experience 
to  draft  quality  proposals,  including  with  a  view  to  designing  non-underspending  projects;  (v) 
stronger attention to integrating cross-sectional topics such as gender mainstreaming, children’s 
rights and where  possible the rights of people with a handicap into the justice programme. 

2