EU Justice Insight

<< Background >>Law and judiciary of the EU is not a topic that would often be reflected by projects in the field of youth work. It’s rather rare. There are also not many initiatives that would bring this topic closer to the EU citizens - concepts of those have a focus mainly on other EU institutions, such as the Parliament or Commission. Collaboration between researchers, other academicians, and non-formal education is not much developed and focuses mainly on short-term activities. Last but not least, the media don´t reflect the complexity of this field of European integration properly, or do it superficially and incorrectly.The motivation of the European Dialogue and the project partners was to change this situation and create the project that connects relevant professions, provides quick insights into EU law and judiciary, and ultimately contributed to tackling misinformation about the EU. The project that would become a platform for learning more about the Court of Justice of the European Union and raising an awareness of what this institution is doing.The project also addressed the need to develop a cooperation across professions that would make it easier to further build on its results and carry out follow-up activities in a longer term.<< Objectives >>The EU Justice Insight aimed at presenting the topic of law and judiciary of the EU more in-depth and supporting its reflection from different angles (legal point of view, impact of EU justice system on the citizens, the awareness of its implications among the EU inhabitants). Specifically, it pursued four objectives:- to increase the interest in and awareness of the topic by enabling simple insight into judicial activities and history of the CJEU and introducing all relevant topics in an innovative way to all EU citizens;- to foster active participation of young academics, young journalists, professionals and citizens;- to facilitate the dialogue and exchange of information and know-how by bringing those target groups together and providing them with interactive website;- to improve skills of students in judicial procedures and skills of young journalists in objective and proper reporting on the subject.The EU Justice Insight project’s approach was composed of data collection and visualisations, creation of materials that users can further adapt to their needs, presenting the topic through media, informative, and educational resources, and holding multidisciplinary and international events.<< Implementation >>EU Justice Insight comprised creation of innovative materials; Training course featuring lectures, workshops and roundtables; Simulation of judicial proceedings; Field study trip to CJEU in Luxembourg, and a Final conference. Through these activities, the project connected young people, youth workers, law practitioners, academicians, and media makers with the topic and EUJI tools, and thus provided space for learning and exchange of information and know-how.Creation of materials included research on activities of the CJEU and the use of a multidisciplinary approach (non-formal education, media making, data research, and law) to ensure the results are accurate, usable, and appealing to the public.The Training and Final conference brought together three different groups of participants (journalists, students, and activists). It facilitated their learning about the topic, promoted cross-sectorial and multi-disciplinary cooperation, and provided a space for networking with relevant institutions and experts.Simulation of CJEU proceedings and Field study trip improved the knowledge of students and media makers in judicial procedures, analysis of the case, and accurately presenting the topic to tackle misinformation about EU affairs.<< Results >>The main output of the EUJI project is a multimedia, interactive, and user-friendly website that is open to everybody, not only to those studying law or political science. It contains innovative features - an interactive database and visualisations of judicial proceedings at the Court of Justice of the EU, media (interviews, social media posts) and educational or informational materials (videos, podcast episodes, case-studies, infographics). During the simulation in Sofia, live-stream was provided and its recording is available on YouTube channel of the project for others to learn from it as well.As a result of use of the materials and participation in the activities, students, media makers, activists, and other EU citizens and residents gained or improved - and they still can enhance - relevant competences and thereby became more knowledgeable and confident in the topic of EU law and justice. EUJI also supported cooperation across professions and borders and laid foundations of a new network and for a prospective cooperation with the CJEU and follow-up initiatives throughout its implementation. Last but not least, the project contributed to prevention and tackling misinformation about the topic.