Euromed Justice III

Contributes to the development of a Euro Mediterranean area of cooperation on justice, through strengthening the development of the institutional and administrative capacity of Partner Countries and good governance

Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Tunisia.

Timeframe: 2011 - 2014

Budget: €5 million

Objectives:

 
To support the development of the Mediterranean partners' institutional and administrative capacity and good governance in the field of justice, including the modernisation of justice systems, the simplification of judicial proceedings and improved access to justice.  
 
The project is structured around three components covering access to justice and legal aid, the resolution of cross‑border family conflicts and the adaptation of legislation in line with the relevant international conventions on criminal and prison law.
 
What does it do?
 
The project will set up working groups, meetings, training sessions and "on-the-job study visits" to support the modernisation of justice systems, the simplification/speeding-up of judicial proceedings and an improved access to justice and legal aid and the quality of justice; and to develop judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, and support initiatives for the reform of criminal and penitentiary law, with a view to facilitating the transposition of the relevant international conventions into the domestic law of the partner countries and their implementation.
 
It also seeks to enhance cooperation in civil and criminal justice and explore possibilities to liaise and create synergies with the relevant EU cooperation units and networks and find ways of facilitating the role of the liaison magistrates.  Furthermore, it aims at strengthening the existing interprofessional community of magistrates and law officials, and reinforcing contacts between the Judicial Training Centres of the ENPI South partner countries. In addition, working group sessions on Criminal Law will be organised for representatives from each of the beneficiary countries, aiming at the preparation of a tool equivalent to the so-called "fiches belges” for the ENPI South partner countries, in order to support the mutual knowledge of the different judicial systems.
The project builds on the achievements of the project’s previous phases Euromed Justice I and Euromed Justice II.
 

Actions in brief

  • Holds 24 meetings and training sessions on the working group issues.
  • Sets up 4 working groups on cooperation in the areas of: access to justice and legal aid, justice and new technologies, resolution of cross-border family conflicts and criminal and prison law, to formulate comparative report of national experiences and ‘handbooks’ on the respective themes.
  • Organises 3 study visits to EU, for judges, magistrates, prosecutors other members of the judiciary and officials.
  • Conducts 2 meetings with Judicial Training Centres for the strengthening of magistrates’ training.
  • Drafts a research report on access to justice and legal aid.
  • Drafts a research report on resolution of cross-border family conflicts.
  • Creates a project website, providing a range of information on its activities.
  • Organises 3 regional conferences of general value for the development and promotion of the project’s progress.

http://www.euromed-justice.eu/home

EU Cooperation with Syria is currently suspended due to the political situation in the country; however, since in principle Syria is eligible for cooperation under the ENPI, activities may be taken up again once the situation improves.

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/122168.pdf
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