AGIS 3: Restorative justice: an agenda for Europe
The general objective of this project was to realise, on the one hand, an effective support to the development of restorative justice in the south of Europe , and, on the other hand, to research what could be the potential role of the European Union in the further development of restorative justice in the whole of the European Union.
The specific objectives were:
1) to provide effective support to the development of restorative justice in Southern European countries by:
• studying, at the legal-conceptual and practical level, what the possibilities are for implementing restorative justice in Southern European countries;
• discussing how the experience in the rest of Europe can inform and support the development of restorative justice in Southern Europe;
• preparing strategies for promoting the development of an integrated policy concerning restorative justice in Southern Europe;
• actively working towards creating dynamics for exchange and co-operation (networking) between Southern European countries in this field;
• discussing what countries in the rest of Europe can learn from the developments in criminal justice in Southern Europe .
2) to identify whether there is a need for further regulation about restorative justice at the level of the EU by:
• analysing the existing legislation on the national level in all EU Member States;
• making an overview of the existing international regulations;
• exploring the main needs at national level which could have implications for EU policies;
• studying whether these needs require specific regulation or other initiative at the level of the European Union;
• studying whether there is a legal basis and whether it is opportune to actually regulate these issues at the level of the European Union;
• if so, discussing the concrete forms, instruments and the content of the EU policies that are required.
The instruments in this project were:
• a core group “Southern Europe”. This is a group formed by experts of each partner country (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Malta, Greece, France, Belgium). They will contribute in an active way to the realisation of the general and specific objectives of the project, and orient and support the project through coherent actions.
• a steering group “EU policies”, formed by a project supervisor and representatives of three partner institutions (Cardiff Law School, Max-Planck Institute, ERA). Their main task is to support and evaluate the work of the researcher. They will devise the strategy and methodology of the research and will supervise the writing of the final publication.
• staff: Three people are working on this project. Jolien Willemsens is acting as project coordinator and researcher on the part of the project dealing with EU policies. Clara Casado is project officer and focusing on Southern Europe. Leni Sannen, the project assistant, is in charge of the administrative tasks ensuing from the project.
The project started officially with the fourth biennial conference of the European Forum in Barcelona (15-17 June 2006).
In the course of the project, both the core group and steering group met twice. In addition, one seminar and one final conference were organised.
The seminar took place on 10-12 May 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal. The final conference took place in Verona (17-19 April 2008).
The project resulted in the publication of two reports: one on restorative justice in Southern Europe (available for download here), and one on the role of the European Union in the further development of restorative justice in Europe (available for download here).
AGIS 2006
With financial support from the AGIS Programme
European Commission – Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security
