Detailed Data

Methodology

Data Collection and Coherence 

This interactive report evaluates the participation of targeted justice professionals in training activities, focused on EU law, non-legal skills and language skills. The findings are based on data collected through dedicated online surveys.

The data for the report has been provided by:

• The European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) for 
  judges, prosecutors and court staff and prosecutors’ office staff;

• Member States authorities for court staff and prosecutors’ office staff;

• The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and 
  the European Lawyers Foundation (ELF) for lawyers;

• The European Union of Bailiffs (UEHJ) and the European Bailiffs' Foundation (EUBF) for bailiffs;

• Notaries of Europe (CNUE) for notaries;

• The Academy of European Law (ERA), the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA); 

• The European Patent Office (EPO), the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) as regards their courses on EU law for justice practitioners;

• The Commission Directorates‑General managing funds for European judicial training activities.

Encouragingly, over the years, contributions have increased from lawyers, prosecutors and prison and probation staff. However, fewer responses were received from judges and bailiffs, indicating a need for further engagement.

Both the quantity and quality of contributions require improvement. Reported variations in training on EU law may sometimes be linked to challenges in data collection. Fluctuations in participation levels for a given Member State or profession could reflect actual participation rates or, in some instances, data gaps. In some cases, the availability of data is limited to specific training providers, regions, or categories of practitioners. Notably, some figures show significant changes due to the expanded availability of online training.

Participation rates vary widely across justice professions and countries. This variability reflects differing training needs, available training opportunities, and in some cases, missing data. While training requirements for EU law differ among professions, the report suggests that additional training may be necessary for some professions in certain Member States. This is particularly relevant given the challenges faced by national systems and the evolving training needs of justice professionals.

Participation

The number of participants in training activities may not correspond to the number of individuals trained, since the same person may have taken part in more than one training activity. 

The numbers of practitioners in each justice profession (as used for calculating the percentages) and the definitions of the professions were taken from the 2024 CEPEJ Evaluation report on European judicial systems (data 2022), except for court and prosecutors’ office staff. For court and prosecutors’ office staff in need of training on EU law the definition as well as the total number of such professionals in the EU Member States, please refer to the Study on the Training Needs of Court Staff on EU Law in the EU. 

The ratio of practitioners participating in continuing training activities on EU law (as a proportion of practitioners by profession) is approximately: 

• 41.0 % (35 342) of all EU judges,
• 37.9 % (13 904) of all EU prosecutors,
• 9.6 % (16 858) of all EU court staff and prosecution’ office staff in need of EU law training,
• 5.5 % (51 950) of all EU lawyers in private practice,
• 7.2 % (4 680) of all EU bailiffs and
• 22.2 % (11 446) of all EU notaries. 

Participation by Profession broken down by Member State

The percentage of justice professionals, participating in initial or continuing training on EU law, varies considerably among Member States. 

Below, we report on participation in training by country for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, court and prosecutors’ office staff and bailiffs (professions for which we received data from most Member States and Western Balkan countries) for both initial and continuing training activities. 

For the sake of completeness, we show participation in absolute numbers as well as percentages of all members of the profession[*] in a year-to-year comparison. Due to strong fluctuations in the magnitude of the numbers between Member States, the graphs, visualising the absolute numbers are depicted on a logarithmic scale (base 10).

Participation of Judges and Prosecutors in Training on EU Law by Member State

The following graphs show the participation of judges and prosecutors in initial and continuing training on EU law in separate tables for an easier comparison. 

According to the strategy 2021-2024, continuing training on EU law should yearly reach 65% of judges and prosecutors. This quantitative objective is currently only reached by 6 out of the 27 EU Member States. Member States with only a few judges and prosecutors can achieve high percentages of trained practitioners by organising a few activities only. For the same reason, percentages in these Member States can easily change from one year to the next, since small differences in absolute numbers cause significant percentage changes. 

For judges and prosecutors, there is a substantial increase for some Member States in comparison with 2022.

Prosecutors

Lawyers

Participation of Lawyers in Training on EU Law by Member State

After the exceptionally high number of training activities of lawyers in 2020, the 2023 data shows a continuing substantial decrease in the number of lawyers participating in EU law, notably due to data collection issues. The lack of data from lawyers’ private training providers remains an issue, meaning that we might only have a partial picture. No private training providers (not connected to bars) provided data, even though in some Member States, lawyers significantly rely on them. For some Member States, data was available only for certain regions or bars or a certain type of lawyers. Nevertheless, the report shows considerable improvements since 2011.

According to the strategy 2021-2024, continuing training on EU law should reach 15% of all EU lawyers yearly. In 2023, this objective was not reached or only reached by 10 Member States for which we received an answer and one WB State. 

Notaries

Participation of Notaries in Training on EU Law by Member State

This report uses the following definition of ‘notary’: ‘a legal official who has been entrusted by the public authority with the safeguarding of the freedom of consent and the protection of the rightful interests of individuals’[*]. Depending on the system of the Member State in question, the notary can be private or public, with different competences and functions. In less than half of the Member States for which we received data, initial training for notaries does not exist. 

According to the quantitative objective, set by the strategy 2021-2024, continuing training on EU law should reach 30% of all EU notaries yearly. In 2023, 9 out of 27 MS and one WB has reached this objective.

[*] European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ), Explanatory note to the scheme for evaluating judicial systems 2018-2020 Cycle, CEPEJ (2018)17, Council of Europe, March 2019. 

Court and Prosecutors’ Office

Participation of Court and Prosecutors’ Office Staff in Training on EU Law by Member State

Member States have different types of court and prosecutors’ office staff. They range from court wardens and technical staff to assistants for judges and partially independent clerks taking judicial decisions, in particular in registers and the execution of judgments. This diversity entails a wide variety of training needs on EU law. To better acknowledge the actual training needs of court and prosecutors’ office staff, this report monitors and refers only to court and prosecutors’ office staff, whose tasks require or may require the application of EU law as defined in the Study on the Training Needs of Court Staff on EU Law in the EU[1]. 

As the roles and training schemes of court and prosecutors’ office staff differ largely among Member States, the collection of data has proven complex. The lack of data on court and prosecutors’ office staff remains a challenge, which needs to be addressed. According to the 2021-2024 strategy, continuing training on EU law should yearly reach 15% of all EU court and prosecutors’ office staff in need of EU law training. With 7 out of 27 MS in 2023, this objective is not yet reached, at the same time as it also requires improvements in the data collection.

Bailiffs

Participation of Bailiffs in Training on EU Law by Member State

The professional status and backgrounds (public officials/private officials) and competencies (enforcement/service of documents) of judicial officers and bailiffs differ, depending on the Member State. Civil enforcement procedures also differ from one country to another. They are considered as court staff in roughly a third of the EU Member States. 

According to the strategy 2021-2024, continuing training on EU law should each year reach 20% of bailiffs. This objective was even surpassed in 2021. As far as we have received data for bailiffs, there is a substantial increase for most Member States. However, the participation rate varies considerably across Member States. There is also room for improvement concerning the number of EU Member States and Western Balkan countries contributing to the data collection. Only 5 EU Member States reached the quantitative objective. As the data concerning initial training of bailiffs received is marginal[*], it will not be displayed below. 

Prison and Probation Officers

Prison and probation officers may be concerned by EU law and EU policies in their daily tasks and are therefore in need of relevant specialised training. With the European Judicial Training Strategy for 2021-2024, the European Commission acknowledges the importance of training of prison and probation officers on EU law and monitors the EU law related training of prison and probation staff. 

The data collection for prison and probation staff shows strong fluctuations over the years. Whereas in 2023, only 6 out of the 27 EU Member States replied to the dedicated questionnaire (data 2022), this year (data 2023), 22 Member States responded and in 2021, it was 15. For some of the responding Member States, more than one training institution provided data for the different professions. 

This year, to avoid false implications about trends based on the data collected, the data will depict solely this year’s responses for prison and probation staff, as the data is not comparable to last year’s data with such high fluctuations in the number of respondents. Since we have received no data from any Western Balkan State, the analysis this year will solely focus on EU Member States.

For more information on prison and probation staff, please refer to our pdf report.

Training Topics

Training activities covered a wide range of EU law topics and topics going beyond legal training (professional skills, professional ethics and language skills) in 2023^[*] in the EU and Western Balkan ‘countries. Most initial training activities focused on professional skills and EU law. Training on digitalisation and IT-Skills accounted for 4,9% and 5,4%, respectively for initial training and 2,5% on digitalisation and 24% on IT-Skills for continuing training. The numbers for continuing training show an increase, but are still far below the objectives of a competitive Europe. 

Quality of Training

Effective judicial training is not only about participant numbers. More importantly, the training activities must be of good quality. Training providers should promote high quality and impactful training activities, using modern training tools, benefiting from digitalisation. It is, however, complex to assess the quality of training. 

In this section, we present different possible indicators, such as the evaluation of training activities, training needs assessment, training for trainers and methodologies applied in training activities on EU law. 

Length of Training on EU Law 

In the graph below, we visualise the data collected to measure the duration of face-to-face and online training activities, initial and continuing training in the EU and the Western Balkan countries by year-to-year-comparison. 

For 2023, the duration of continuing face-to-face training activities was generally shorter than the duration of initial face-to-face training activities.

In 2023, 70% of all continuing face-to-face and 59% of all initial face-to-face training on EU law activities lasted up to 6 hours.

Types of EU Law Training Activities

In 2023[*], the majority (66%) of training activities organised in the responding EU Member States or Western Balkan countries were held face-to-face. The report shows an increase of initial face-to-face continuing training activities from 38% in 2022 to 55% in 2023. Likewise, hybrid training activities have increased this year, whereas blended and eLearning training activities have both decreased. 

Evaluation of Training Activities

In 2023, most of the responding countries (83% for initial training and 58% for continuing training) evaluated the training activities on EU law that they organised. However, only 29 % for initial and 21% for continuing training applied the Kirkpatrick methodology to evaluate the training activities. 

Monitoring Training Needs

A majority of the responding countries (87% for initial and 69% continuing training) monitored training needs. Most countries, for which we have received a reply, consulted the target audience for the training needs assessment.  

Training of Trainers

In 2023, training of trainers on EU law was only offered in a minority of the responding countries (36% for initial and 33% for continuing training). The same applies for the training of trainers on e-learning methodology. In 2023, 40% of the responding countries offered training on e-learning methodology for their trainers in initial training and 31% in continuing training. 

Training Activity Methodologies

The methodology applied in training activities on EU law is as diverse as the topics of EU law training. All responding countries and all responding professions applied different methodologies in their initial and continuing training offer.