Justice, consumers and gender equality

← Justice, consumers and gender equality

Revision of the victims’ rights acquis

Summary
Evaluation
Commission Proposal
Legal Act
Implementation

Overall state of play:

Evaluation: finalised – Commission Staff Working Document on the evaluation of the Victims’ Rights Directive was published on 28 June 2022 (SWD(2022) 179)
Commission Proposal – adopted, on 12/07/2023, COM(2023) 424 final

State of play, main conclusions, outlook:

The need for further actions in the area of victims’ rights has been identified in the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025). Under the strategy, the Commission committed in particular, to assess EU rules on victims’ rights and their possible shortcomings. The strategy specifies that, where necessary, the Commission will come forward with legislative actions by 2022 to further strengthen victims’ rights.

In line with this engagement, the Commission announced the revision of the victims’ rights acquis in its 2022 work programme.

In June 2022, the Commission published the Evaluation of the Victims’ Rights Directive. The evaluation shows that over the past ten years, the Victims’ Rights Directive has greatly contributed to improving the lives of victims across the EU. It has enhanced victims’ safety and reduced the risk of negative effect from the participation in criminal proceedings and from the contacts with the offender.

The evaluation however, also points out that there are still situations where not all victims can fully rely on their rights. For instance, victims should be able to take a more active role in the criminal proceedings and have easier access to compensation – so they can see that justice is done for them.

Fit for Future Platform

On 5 December 2022, the Fit for Future Platform (F4F) adopted an opinion on the Revision of the victims’ rights acquis. In the opinion, the Platform has referred to the systematic and continuous education and involvement of all stakeholders in the victim support system and made two suggestions:

Suggestion 1: More efficient mechanisms need to be explored or put in place to monitor regularly the measures taken by Member States to ensure the systematic and continuous education of all stakeholders in the victim support system, including police officers and members of the judiciary

Suggestion 2: It would be advisable at EU level to explore more ways to involve a wide range of actors in the assessment of victims’ needs - police officers, prosecutors, judges, expert assistants at courts but also non-governmental organizations specialized in supporting victims, especially certain categories of vulnerable victims. Involving expert assistance could ensure a greater level of awareness of all stakeholders who come into contact with victims during criminal proceedings, but also before and outside of criminal proceedings.

The Commission has launched an EU-wide victims’ rights campaign at the beginning of 2023, which is expected to raise awareness of victims’ rights, a main aspect pointed out by the Platform. The Commission also continues implementing the actions from its Victims’ Rights Strategy 2020-2025, which include improving cooperation and coordination by the EC Coordinator for Victims’ Rights through the activities of the EU Victims’ Rights Platform, the EU Centre of Expertise for victims of terrorism in close cooperation with the European Network on Victims’ Rights. The Commission is also working on strengthening training activities, including through cooperation with the European Judicial Training Network, to reach actors who are in contact with victims, such as judicial authorities, lawyers, prosecutors, court staff and prison and probation staff. In July 2023, the Commission tabled a proposal revising the victims’ rights acquis, aiming at improving victims’ access to information, support and justice as well as strengthening multi-agency cooperation between all relevant stakeholders who come into contact with victims.

State of Play

Finalised: SWD(2022)179; 28 June 2022

Scope:

Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (Victims’ Rights Directive)

Evaluation findings:

The evaluation showed generally that the Directive has had a generally positive impact on the right to information, on access to victim support services, access to justice, protection measures and the provision of professional training. It also remained relevant while the coherence (internal and external) was considered in the evaluation satisfactory. Evidence from the evaluation shows that the Directive has provided added value. The evaluation identified some shortcomings and drew lessons for the functioning of the directive. A number of challenges were identified regarding the content and the provision of information, at the different stages of the victim’s experience (i.e. first contact/during criminal proceedings). On the content of the information provided, some of the main challenges identified were a lack of comprehensive information, low awareness of services and rights, and information that is not sufficiently tailored to victims’ needs or accessible enough. Also, The Directive has improved victims’ access to support services. However, there is room for improvement in the provision of specialised expertise to meet specific victims’ needs. Other remaining problems include uneven information distribution at national level and the lack of certain services.

On victims’ access to justice, the Directive has introduced a set of rights for victims in the event of a decision not to prosecute and has established the right to be heard. Nonetheless, evidence from the evaluation study suggests that some groups of vulnerable victims seem to have difficulties accessing justice because Member States still lack specific procedures for vulnerable victims. The procedural aspects of the rights related to access to justice are regulated by national law and their effectiveness in practice is difficult to assess as it can be limited by national procedural requirements. Significant challenges were also identified with regard to victims’ right to protection. the evaluation study shows that the implementation of this right is partially hampered because of the lack of specific guidelines for conducting assessments, the lack of awareness or the lack of training for practitioners.

Estimated savings and benefits

On efficiency, evidence shows that the aspects that are the most costly to implement have differed greatly from one Member State to another. This is due to the varied national laws and practices regarding victims’ rights. The same conclusion can be drawn on the availability of general resources and the costs associated with implementing specific provisions of the Directive. Certain limitations, such as the lack of complete monitoring and reporting by Member States, affected the assessment of the Directive’s efficiency.

Although difficult to quantify, the evaluation of the Directive confirms that it has broadly generated the benefits it was expected to. This is particularly the case for the overall treatment of victims by competent authorities, victims’ being able to count on their right to information and protection being enforced, as well as their right to access support services and justice. Member States have also started to pay more attention to the privacy of victims. In general, the Directive has enhanced victims’ safety and reduced the risk of secondary victimisation and retaliation.