The lack of awareness of the European Protection Order among service providers and legal practitioners may be a major concern for victim support in the European Union.
In a joint report published on Friday 21 February, on the eve of the European Day for Victims of Crime, the EU’s judicial cooperation unit, Eurojust, and the European Institute for Gender Equality, EIGE, have evaluated the use of this mutual recognition instrument (https://aeur.eu/f/flz ) which, since it came into force in 2015, has been designed to protect victims of crime already benefitting from national protection measures when they move to another Member State.
According to the results of the survey of 227 representatives of the judiciary - including law enforcement - and victim support services from almost all Member States, the aim of this text, which mainly concerns women who have suffered domestic violence, harassment, stalking or sexual assault, is undermined by the low level of awareness among the bodies responsible.
In addition to this initial obstacle, there are major shortcomings in terms of training, communication channels and coordination between support services and judicial authorities.
Only 29% of the latter said they were “very” or “somewhat” familiar with the European Protection Order, while over 30% said they were “not at all” familiar with it.
In terms of support services, although 64% of respondents stated that they were aware of the existence of the text before completing the survey, 91% had never received training on the instrument and over 70% did not know whether there were national contact points where they could obtain information.
Finally, less than 15% had been in contact with a victim who was seeking or had obtained a European Protection Order.
To remedy these problems, Eurojust and the EIGE recommend promoting the decision via European training structures that would intervene with legal practitioners, law enforcement agencies and support services, and possibly via an information campaign. This could also involve drawing up guidelines and information material, using specialised EU agencies, to help stakeholders navigate the system.
In addition, victim support should be based on existing EU helplines, which would provide information on cross-border protection through the framework decision.
The study also reports that the applicable EU legal framework is complex, as it potentially overlaps with other instruments, such as the Victims’ Rights Directive, the revision of which is currently being negotiated (see EUROPE 13574/24) and which ensures victim protection. It therefore suggests that more information on the framework decisions and their use be provided to specialist networks (judicial and NGOs).
Despite these areas for improvement, it should be noted that 79% of respondents acknowledged that there is no better way of protecting victims at national level in a cross-border situation.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/flw (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)