Kiri

Dear colleagues,

We would like to thank again the Experts and Member States representatives, including focal points, that have participated to last week’s Meeting of the Expert group against SLAPP joined by the Focal Points and Member States representatives.

As requested, please find below a summary of sources of funding for anti-SLAPP projects.

We would also like to remind Member States which have not yet provided information on their follow-up to the Commission’s 2022 Anti-SLAPP Recommendation to do so as soon as possible, as the deadline to provide input was yesterday 16 September. Likewise, we would like to remind Focal Points that would have not already done so to provide us with their contact details asap in order for us to publish the list on our website.

We remain at your disposal should you have any questions.

Best wishes,

European Commission
DG JUST Anti-SLAPP Team

Sources of funding for Anti-SLAPP activities

1.       The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme and the Justice Programme

The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme (1.55 billion over 7 years) aims to protect and promote rights and EU values. It contributes to building a more democratic EU, respect for the rule of law, fundamental rights and democratic dialogue, transparency and good governance, including in cases of shrinking space for civil society. The CERV Programme also provides funding for mutual learning seminars in the context of the national electoral networks, these seminars can be expanded to include the protection of journalists and human rights defenders from SLAPPs.

Under the CERV 2023-2024 Work Programme, one call is particularly relevant.

·         Call for proposals CERV-2024-CHAR-LITI, in particular on the topic of “Strategic litigation”. Information is available here.

The Justice Programme (305 million euro over 7 years) aims to contribute to develop a European area of justice thereby strengthening democracy, the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights. This Programme provides inter alia for the possibility to fund activities linked to judicial training, with a view to fostering a common legal and judicial culture based on the rule of law, and to support and promote the consistent and effective implementation of the Union legal instruments that are relevant in the context of the Programme.

·         An example of project under this heading was PAT-Fox (Pioneering AntiSLAPP Training for Freedom of Expression) which was funded under the call for proposals for action grants to support transnational projects on judicial training covering civil law, criminal law or fundamental rights (JUST-2021-JTRA). The project aimed to pioneer Europe's first anti-SLAPP training, upskilling the lawyers representing journalists and human rights defenders against those litigating to shut down legitimate criticism in 11 Member States. I was presented during the 9^th meeting of the Anti-SLAPP Expert Group in February 2024.

SLAPP remains a priority of the annual calls for proposal on judicial training under the Justice programme. The 2024 call is closed. The 2025 call should be published in Q4 2024/Q1 2025.

DG JUST has a newsletter on funding opportunities and funded projects under both CERV and Justice, which is available here.

2.       Support to the news media sectors

The Commission supports news media through different instruments, based on objectives such as protecting media freedom and pluralism, fostering collaboration and innovation of the sectors, and contributing to citizen’s engagement and the quality of public debate. In general, you can find information on grants potentially benefiting the news media sectors at:

·         factsheet: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/eu-support-news-media-sector

·         and grants:  https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/funding-news-media-sector

The logic underpinning these actions is explained at part of our News Initiative: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/news-initiative - which was launched in 2020.

3. Creative Europe

Creative Europe is one of the instruments used to support the news media sectors, as part of its wider objectives to respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors and contribute to cultural diversity. The programme provides support to the sectors through its X-Sectoral strand, although the funding remains modest. There are currently no open calls on media freedom and pluralism under the Creative Europe Programme.

While this Programme focuses on media and does not cover human rights defenders per se, there is a project currently funded under this programme worth citing as relevant to the implementation of the Anti-SLAPP Recommendation.

·         “A Europe wide response mechanism for violations of press and media freedom”. This project monitors the state of media freedom in the EU Member States and Candidate Countries and reports through the site mappingmediafreedom.org. This included monitoring and analysing legal developments, SLAPPs against influential journalists and media have been analysed there. This project also provides legal and practical support to journalists and other media practitioners in need; this includes legal expertise on e.g. SLAPPs, financial support, a sheltering programme for journalists at risk and safety training courses. It also supports Advocacy and awareness-raising in the field of media freedom and safety of journalists. Some advocacy missions have also covered instances of SLAPPs. See Media Freedom Rapid Response - Media Freedom Rapid Response (mfrr.eu)

4.       Pilot projects and preparatory actions

Preparatory Action “Emergency support fund for investigative journalists and media organisations to ensure media freedom in the EU”. The aim of this preparatory action was to create an emergency support fund for investigative journalists and media organisations to improve press and media freedom and to prevent violations thereof by supporting the production of quality independent journalistic content in the public interest, including through cross-border cooperation. Ended in 30/11/2023.