The main objective of the Norway grants Justice programme in Romania, which runs until 2024, is to strengthen the rule of law. The total programme budget equals € 45,000,000, under which a project on 4,1 million € targets the courts specifically. The latter project, entitled "Judicial training and capacity building", is implemented by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) in Romania with the Norwegian Court Administration (NCA) as program and project partner.
The project aims to improve the application of European legal concepts by the Romanian judiciary by increasing the quality in Romanian courts through several measures, inter alia:
- Training of legal professionals on European cooperation in criminal cases, civil cases, administrative cases, and public procurement, etc.
- Competence building activities on the topic of child friendly justice and hearing techniques for minors, and developing hearing rooms for minors in courts,
- Increased access to justice of vulnerable groups - raising awareness on the special needs of the vulnerable groups, hereunder Roma population.
- Increased efficiency through use of new ICT equipment.
The programme has a strong bilateral dimension building on the successful bilateral cooperation during the previous Norway Grants mechanism (2009-2014), which consisted of a comprehensive exchange of best practices between the justice and correctional services practitioners from the two countries.
The previous 2009-2014 programme concentrated on:
Legal certainty and increased efficiency in Romanian courts - several competence measures were organized to support the implementation of four major legislative reforms in Romania (the procedural laws, the new criminal and civil code). In order to increase the efficiency of Romanian courts, trainigns on court administration were organized (i.e. case management, "time management", etc.)
Access to justice for vulnerable groups
Several activities were organized to increase access to justice for vulnerable groups (with a focus on Roma people). Through the project, a large number of people were informed about their rights, benefited from legal advice and several judges participated at anti-discrimination seminars.
Modernization of the courts' case processing system - through the project, a survey of European best practice was made, with recommendations for further development of the Romanian case management system.
Renewal of ICT equipment - the project financed the acquisition of new computer equipment for the Romanian Courts.
You can read more about the Justice Programme in Romania on https://eeagrants.org/news/programme-agreement-signed-justice-programme-romania