National judges play a key role in the implementation of EU environmental law. The capacity of national courts to guarantee the correct and efficient application of EU environmental law is an essential factor for addressing the legitimate expectations of EU citizens in this domain. Recognising the need to reinforce cooperation with national judges, the European Commission’s Environment Directorate-General launched a special programme for this purpose. Since 2012, the Academy of European Law has been contracted to develop training modules on various topics of EU environmental law as well as to organise workshops and seminars on the implementation of EU environmental law.
The main goal of the third phase is to continue and further develop the programme for co-operation with national judges in the field of environment law established during the last eight years by building on the results achieved so far, by enriching the programme with new elements, and by extending its scope.
The development of specific training modules, which are going to be directly used by judicial training institutions across Europe to implement training events according to the needs they identify, will have multiplier effect and should be of interest also to non-judicial training actors. The modules will strengthen application skills and promote the knowledge of European environmental law in this area much more efficiently than an individual training event could ever do. All training modules will include a trainer’s manual with information and guidelines on how to organise a workshop implementing the module, an introductory e-learning course, background materials for the recipients of the training and practical exercises with their suggested solutions, to be used in implementing workshops.
