COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA
Date: 2022-06-28
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: access to the courts, application of EU law, area of freedom, security and justice, crime against individuals, criminal procedure, help for victims, right to information, right to justice, rights of the defence

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 28.6.2022  SWD(2022) 180 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA      {SWD(2022) 179 final}  
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

This Staff Working Document presents the evaluation of the Victims’ Rights Directive1. The 
Directive  provides  victims  with  a  right  to  information,  a  right  to  understand  and  be 
understood, a right to access support and protection in accordance with their individual needs, 
as well as with a set of procedural rights. 

The  evaluation2  considers  the  Directive  in  light  of  five  evaluation  criteria3:  effectiveness, 
relevance, efficiency, coherence and EU added value.4 

This  Staff  Working  Document  aims  to  provide  the  Commission  with  a  qualitative  and 
quantitative analysis of the Directive’s impact as well as  with lessons learned. Based on the 
evaluation, the Commission will, if necessary, decide on appropriate follow-up actions. This 
evaluation  will  form  the  basis  for  an  Impact  Assessment5  for  any  future  action  by  the 
Commission. 

Key conclusions and lessons learned: 

With  regard  to  effectiveness,  the  evaluation  shows  that  the  Directive  has  had  a  generally 
positive  impact.  Nonetheless,  several  challenges  have  been  identified.  Some  of  them  are 
related to: the content and the provision of information to victims of crime; the lack of certain 
types of specialised support services; the lack of measures for victims’ physical protection. 

With  regard  to  relevance,  the  evaluation  study  shows  that  the  Directive  in  general  remains 
relevant and adequate. Nonetheless, several limitations have been identified. For instance, the 
evaluation found that there is room for improvement of the Directive with regard to the role of 
the digital space and use of common technologies. 

When it comes to efficiency, evidence shows that the aspects which are the most expensive to 
implement  have  differed  greatly  between  individual  Member  States.  According  to  the 
evaluation, the Directive is internally and externally coherent to a satisfactory level.  

Evidence found that the Directive has generated added value. Nonetheless, in certain cases, 
the added value of the Directive was limited by the lack of specificity of some provisions.  

1  Directive  2012/29/EU  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  25  October  2012 
establishing  minimum  standards  on  the  rights,  support  and  protection  of  victims  of  crime,  and 
replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA. 
2 An external evaluation study was carried out by a contractor to support the Commission, following a 
call for services under a framework contract: ICF (2021). Study to support the evaluation of Directive 
2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, 
final report. 
3 The evaluation also assesses the impact of the Directive on fundamental rights. 
4  The  evaluation  criteria  are  assessed  from  the  date  of  entry  into  force  of  the  Directive,  i.e.  15 
November 2012, until October 2021 and cover the entirety of the Directive and all Member States that 
are bound by it. 
5 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13096-Criminal-justice-EU-
rules-on-victims%E2%80%99-rights-update-_en  

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The evaluation presented possible follow-up measures that should not prejudge any decision 
to  review  the  Directive.  For  instance,  such  measures  could  include:  introduction  of  a 
requirement in the Directive that victims receive information in multiple formats; extension of 
free psychological support and medical treatment for as long as needed, at least for vulnerable 
victims; introduction of measures for victims’ physical protection. 

2