About

Project title: Training for a European Justice Area

Objectives

1. Contributing in the consolidation of the European Area of Justice through the cooperation in the effective and coherent application of EU law in the areas of fundamental rights, with special focus in the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law and data protection. This will be achieved by by covering specific training needs and training gaps of legal professionals in these fields.

2. Building legal professionals, especially laywers and mediators capacity to invoke the respective EU legislation, such as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA and the EU legislation on personal data protection, in national and European context.

3. Reinforcing the level of protection of fundamental rights and human dignity of EU citizens, asylum seekers and migrants, especialy under the light of the growing sentiments of racism, xenophobia, totalitarianism and radicalism in european societies.

4. Promoting common standards of fudamental rights protection between European countries.

5. Raising awareness about the scope and application of a) the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, b) the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA, c) EU legislation on data protection, and the need for their application on national and european context, targeting especially legal professionals (lawyers and mediators) as well as the general public.

6. Covering specific training needs of lawyers and mediators regarding of a) the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, b) the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA, c) EU legislation on data protection, in the context of the current migration and asylum crisis (by taking into account the recent disproportionate increase of legal cases concerning migration and sylum).

7. Addressing training needs of lawyers and mediators regarding cloudy issues that have arisen regarding the protection of economic and social rights especially under the scope of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

8. Ensuring a human rights based approach to traditional and alternative methods of dispute resolution.

9. Promoting new forms of cooperation, networking and synergies among academia, legal practionioners and stakeholders between european states with the aim of enhancing the coherent application of EU respective legislation and ensuring common standards for the consolidation of a European Area of Justice.

Activities

1. Conducting 5 mutual learning seminars/workshops for legal professionals (especially lawyers and mediators)

2. Preparing learning material: 5 Self-training manuals and 10 Questions and Answers (Q&A book series) in printed and online form.

3. Preparing 5 “Online teaching packages” that include videos and electronic reading material.

4. Organizing 3 International Conferences

Expected results

1. Increased knowledge of legal professionals, especially lawyers and mediators about a) the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, b) the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA, c) EU legislation on data protection.

2. Covered training needs' gaps in: a) the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, b) the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA, c) EU legislation on data protection, d) Economic and social rights of the Charter and e) the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

3. Increased awarness raising between the legal and academic community about the scope and the application of the respective EU legislation in national and european context.