Funded projects in other EU Programmes

Peter Rackow, Institute for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

Project title:
DIGItalisation of defence RIGHTS in criminal proceedings

Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic saw the transition to digitalisation occur at startling speed across many domains, including criminal justice proceedings. Here, however, this transition is often without necessary reflection on the legal and practical preconditions required to assure equivalence between offline and online procedural rights. Digitalisation is going to change the dynamics of criminal justice beyond the pandemic. This is, therefore, the moment to assess how technology can best serve the needs of both the prosecution and the defence.

Focussing on the procedural rights which are susceptible to digitalisation—namely the rights to interpretation, translation, access to the case file, legal assistance and legal aid, and to be present at trial—the DigiRights project will map and assess the existing practices of digitalisation of these rights with a view to proposing a set of European guidelines for their digital application. The ultimate goal is to promote a digitalisation of procedural rights that ensures a uniform and adequate standard of protection across the EU. Through national legal and empirical research—considering Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary and Italy—and a European and comparative study, the project will evaluate the degree to which digitalisation of procedural rights is equivalent to their classic recognition. Particular attention will be paid to the use of videoconferencing to connect the accused with their lawyer, interpreter or the court itself, and to the use of artificial intelligence to ensure access to the case file or the translation of legal documents. In directing its guidelines towards national and EU authorities, and law and policy makers, DigiRights aspires to guide current interpretations and future adaptations of EU criminal law on the rights of accused persons, to contribute to the effective and coherent application of such rights, and to aid mutual trust and recognition across Member States.
Project database of the EU's FATO Portal (EN)
Website of the project (EN)
Press release (DE)

Birgit Schulze-Ehlers, Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products

Project title:
LIFE Environmental Data & Ecolabeling for Sustainable Food Choice

Abstract:
The general objective of the LIFE ECO FOOD CHOICE project is to share learnings and experiences at EU level, in order to develop and test new methodologies for life cycle inventories and environmental scores on food, as well as a labeling scheme. The project is led by 9 organisations from 4 EU countries - France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain - and its results will enable the further development in each country of national and regional databases, as well as food environmental impacts' labeling schemes. More specifically, the project entails the following tasks: The development of a harmonised methodology for life cycle inventory in Europe, as well as guidelines to adapt life cycle data from one country or region to another, with the creation of new datasets covering 30 products in 3 country (Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) The development of a harmonised methodology for aggregating the LCA scores and complementing them to calculate a food environmental score (E-score), and a classification scheme The development of a label format and visual, that will be tested and validated in real life conditions with consumers and farmers. The pilots will be organized in laboratories, supermarkets and canteens, in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, reaching 56 300 European consumers in total. Communication and dissemination activities, in order to spread the project's results at EU level, among researchers, agri-food professionals and public authorities. It is in line with the priorities of the LIFE 2022 Environmental governance call, as it will raise awareness on a crucial environmental topic - the sustainability of the food system and the consumers' information - contributing to the EU works on food LCA, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, and ultimately the Green Deal objectives.
LIFE Public Database