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Stockholm programme: More money for development of alternative sanctions

Publication date: 15-12-2009

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In the previous edition of the CEP Newsletter CEP President Patrick Madigou stated that "There is clearly a tendency in the EU to give more attention to probation. It would be a huge success if ‘probation' would be mentioned explicitly in the Stockholm programme."  The official version of the Stockholm Programme, which contains the EU priorities in the realm of Justice for the period 2010-2014, was made public by the beginning of this month. Particularly relevant for the sector of probation in Europe are the stipulations that ‘exchange of best practices in  alternatives to imprisonment should be promoted' and that the Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security (DG JFS)  of the EU should "examine the possibilities of using the existing programmes to finance pilot schemes in the Member States testing alternatives to imprisonment".

In its contributions to the Stockholm programme in September 2009 and to the consultation round of DG JFS in November 2008, both drawn up after a consultation with its member organizations, CEP stressed the importance of the exchange for best practices in the sector of probation, as well as making probation a priority in the DG JFS funding programmes. "This is very good news", reacts Patrick Madigou. "Of course these guidelines still need to be put into practice, but I am sure that we will see the first results of it in the policy of DG JFS in the next year already. The sector of probation should be alert and seize the opportunities that offers the EU."  

Although the term ‘alternative sanctions' was mentioned just twice in the Stockholm programme, there are more stipulations which relate directly to CEP's contribution. The Ministers of Justice of the EU Members states, who decided on the text in their session of the 1^st of December, stated that comparable statistics for EU member countries are one of the prerequisites for effective decision making of  the EU in the realm of Justice. Therefore, the European Council of Ministers proposes to continue developing statistical tools to measure crime and criminal activities. Exactly to this end CEP has initiated a project plan to develop a statistical standard for probation statistics. The plan was further developed by HEUNI, the Finnish based European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control. This resulted in a project proposal submitted in July under the ISEC funding programme of the EU. A decision on this proposal is expected in the coming months.

Also in the Stockholm programme, DG JFS is asked to present a project plan for the establishment of an Observatory for the Prevention of Crime (OPC). The main tasks of the  OCP should be ‘to collect, analyze and disseminate knowledge on crime, including organised crime (including statistics) and crime prevention, to support and promote Member States and EU institutions when they take preventive measures and to exchange best practice.' In its  contributions to various programmes and plans of the EU, CEP had prominently mentioned the establishment of ‘Centre of Probation Excellence', an organization similar to the OPC, but limited to probation.   

Particularly interesting with regard to the upcoming CEP conference on the Recruitment and Training of Probation Practitioners, from 17^th - 18^th December in Agen, France is the paragraph on training in the Stockholm programme. According to this paragraph the EU should strongly back efforts to establish training and exchange programmes for professionals working in the field of cross-border criminal justice. The EU regards this as essential for fostering a European judicial and law enforcement culture. As such,  the Council of ministers state that a substantive number of professionals by 2015 will have participated in a European Training Scheme The European Council considers that EU and international cooperation aspects should be part of national curricula.

"We will take this information to our conference in Agen and discuss how the sector of probation in Europe can respond to this paragraph", says Patrick Madigou. "It also was encouraging to read in the Stockholm programme that the EU stresses the importance of mutual recognition between EU Member States (i.e. confidence in each other's criminal justice system). This implies that the EU highly values the adequate implementation of its Framework Decisions, a stance which is shared by CEP with regard to the Framework Decisions that target probation. This all shows to me that the time is right to boost the development of probation in Europe. Therefore CEP deemed it a good moment to apply for an operating grant from Criminal Justice Unit of DG JFS. Our application has been submitted one week after the EU Council of Ministers of Justice had decided on the Stockholm programme. So if the  members of the Evaluation Committee  have read the Stockholm programme before they decide on our funding applications, I think our proposal makes a very good chance to be accepted."   

The Stockholm programme can be found here.

• More on the promotion of best practices exchange can be read in paragraph 3.2.6. Detention
• Probation as a priority of the DG JFS funding programmes is treated in paragraph 3.3.1 Criminal law
• The stipulation on the importance of statistics for effective EU decision making can be found in paragraph 4.3.3. Statistics
• The OPC is mentioned under 4.3.2. More Effective Crime Prevention
• More on training can be read in paragraph 1.2.6. Training