EC “Budget for Europe 2020″ – Justice

POLICY
The EU’s justice, fundamental rights, citizenship and equality policies are based on the EU’s fundamental values and principles, such as democracy, freedom, tolerance, non-discrimination and the rule of law. The policy supports the creations of a pan-European area of law, rights and justice, for the benefit of all citizens of the EU.
In today’s Europe, millions of citizens are involved in activities that span borders – in their private lives, through their work or studies, or as consumers. The Commission seeks to offer practical solutions to cross-border problems for both citizens and business: for citizens to feel at ease about living, travelling and working in another Member State and to trust that their rights are protected no matter where in the EU they happen to be; and for businesses to make full use of the opportunities provided by the single market.
The main tool for building an EU area of justice is legislation, and the Commission has an ambitious programme for setting EU-wide standards so that people can rely on the same, basic level of justice (for example if they fall victim to crime) and enjoy non-discriminatory treatment anywhere in Europe. The Lisbon Treaty offers new opportunities for judicial cooperation in criminal and civil matters and tasks the EU with facilitating access to justice across the EU. It also provides for the mainstreaming of gender equality and non-discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in all EU policies and activities.
To make these rights and laws effective in practice, they need to be implemented correctly and people – from citizens to judges – need to understand and know how to use them. The Commission therefore runs a series of dedicated financial programmes to support its legislation and policies, focusing on cross-border issues that can only be adequately addressed by coordinated action at the level of the EU.

INSTRUMENTS
The Commission proposes to streamline the programmes in this area into a Justice programme and a Rights and Citizenship programme. This approach will simplify funding arrangements and provide more coherence and consistency across the full range of activities funded. The integrated programmes will focus on a series of thematic priorities and will finance activities offering clear EU added value, such as:
•Training for legal professionals (such as judges and prosecutors) to equip them with the tools to put EU rights and justice into practice and create mutual trust, which is the basis of the area of freedom, security and justice;
•Strengthening networks, i.e. EU-wide organisations to assist with the preparation of future initiatives in this area, as well as to promote their consistent implementation across Europe;
•Cross-border cooperation on enforcement, for example establishing missing child alert systems, coordination of operational and cross-border anti-drug co-operation; and
•Information and public awareness raising, including support for national and European campaigns to inform people of their rights, as guaranteed under EU law, and how to enforce them in practice.
Where possible the programmes will allow for the possible participation of candidate countries and potentially other third countries.

IMPLEMENTATION
Reducing the number of funding programmes and concentrating all funding priorities will allow for the same set of rules to be applied to all areas and for procedures to be streamlined.
This will lead to efficiency improvements both for the Commission and for the recipients of EU funding. The reduction of legal bases and budget lines will allow for greater flexibility, thereby allowing for an improved focus on EU policy priorities and improved budgetary execution.
The Commission proposes to continue funding the existing agencies in the field of justice and fundamental rights, as all bring significant added value to the development and implementation of policies in this area. These agencies include EUROJUST, the European Institute for Gender Equality and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

PROPOSED BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR 2014-2020
All figures in constant 2011 prices
Total proposed budget 2014-2020 €802 million
of which
Justice Programme €416 million
Rights and Citizenship Programme €387 million