EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Staff Working Document presents the evaluation of the Victims’ Rights Directive 1 . The Directive provides victims with a right to information, a right to understand and be understood, a right to access support and protection in accordance with their individual needs, as well as with a set of procedural rights.
The evaluation 2 considers the Directive in light of five evaluation criteria 3 : effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, coherence and EU added value. 4
This Staff Working Document aims to provide the Commission with a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Directive’s impact as well as with lessons learned. Based on the evaluation, the Commission will, if necessary, decide on appropriate follow-up actions. This evaluation will form the basis for an Impact Assessment 5 for any future action by the Commission.
Key conclusions and lessons learned:
With regard to effectiveness, the evaluation shows that the Directive has had a generally positive impact. Nonetheless, several challenges have been identified. Some of them are related to: the content and the provision of information to victims of crime; the lack of certain types of specialised support services; the lack of measures for victims’ physical protection.
With regard to relevance, the evaluation study shows that the Directive in general remains relevant and adequate. Nonetheless, several limitations have been identified. For instance, the evaluation found that there is room for improvement of the Directive with regard to the role of the digital space and use of common technologies.
When it comes to efficiency, evidence shows that the aspects which are the most expensive to implement have differed greatly between individual Member States. According to the evaluation, the Directive is internally and externally coherent to a satisfactory level.
Evidence found that the Directive has generated added value. Nonetheless, in certain cases, the added value of the Directive was limited by the lack of specificity of some provisions.
The evaluation presented possible follow-up measures that should not prejudge any decision to review the Directive. For instance, such measures could include: introduction of a requirement in the Directive that victims receive information in multiple formats; extension of free psychological support and medical treatment for as long as needed, at least for vulnerable victims; introduction of measures for victims’ physical protection.