ENVR Working Programme 2026

The work of ENVR will cover a wide spectrum of the victims’ rights area in line with the relevant legal instruments, in particular the Victims’ Rights Directive^[1], the Compensation Directive and the Directive on combating terrorism^[2], moreover in line with the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2022-2025)^[3] the EU Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025)^[4] and the relevant Council Conclusions.

In 2026, ENVR continues to pay particular attention to topics which are affected by the Proposal for the amendment of the Victims’ Rights Directive.[5]

The following working topics are envisaged by the Association of the European Network on Victims’ Rights. The below listed working topics include suggestions made by the national experts. Beyond the below priorities, activities may address further issues that are of interest to professionals. Moreover, ENVR remains responsive to situations and urgencies by taking additional activities and working topics, if necessary.

1. Events

Generic network

Activity: In-person Expert Meeting (part of the Spring Conference to be held in the Hague)

Programme: Spring Expert Meeting

Objective: The Expert Meeting offers plenary forum to discuss the current policy trends and forthcoming tasks moreover summarize the experiences of the recent activities (e.g. actions of the EU institutions, actions of ENVR, priorities of EU Presidencies, introduction by other cooperating stakeholders). The Expert Meeting also includes workshop format interactive sessions to discuss challenges and solutions related to various aspects of victims’ rights in the areas of legislation, implementation and law practice.

Duration: 1-day personal event in mixed plenary and workshop format

Working topics:

• Challenges regarding victims of war crimes and other international crimes
• Victims of sexual violence: How to address overlap between directives (victims’ rights, violence against women, combatting sexual abuse of children); Barnahus type services for adult victims of sexual violence; Good practices for individual assessment of this victim group; Child victims of sexual abuse; Good practices for protecting child victims of sexual violence.

Activity: In-person Seminar (part of the Spring Conference to be held in the Hague)

Programme: Seminar

Objective: The Seminar explores several aspects of one particular area of victims’ rights with the objective of deeper study of the agenda topic.

Duration: 1-day personal event in multiple workshop format

Working theme: Educating society on victims’ rights

• Education for students and young people: prevention programs in schools, high schools and universities; involvement of young volunteers in the support work
• Awareness raising in the wider society: 1) the role and impact of media in victims’ rights 2) good practices for sensitizing society, including the application of AI solutions

Activity: Online Expert Meeting

Programme: Autumn Expert Meeting

Objective: The Expert Meeting offers plenary forum to discuss the current policy trends and forthcoming tasks moreover summarize the experiences of the recent activities (e.g. actions of the EU institutions, actions of ENVR, priorities of EU Presidencies, introduction by other cooperating stakeholders). Expert Meetings also include workshop format interactive sessions to discuss challenges and solutions related to various aspects of victims’ rights in the areas of legislation, implementation and law practice.

Duration: 1-day online event in mixed plenary and workshop format

Working theme: Perspectives and challenges regarding the transposition of the revised Victims’ Rights Directive

• Workshop I – 1) Helplines (e.g. state of play, coordination of helplines: how to organize the connection between the general helpline and specialized helplines; functioning of helplines in multi-lingual environments) 2) Conducting individual assessments in accordance with the new Directive (methodologies, roles, interoperability, assessing of victims with specific needs, trainings for professionals of assessing those victims) 3) Role and responsibilities of court-based victim support officers: selection, training, and institutional integration 4) Any other topic raised by participants related to the implementation of the revised Directive
• Workshop II – 1) Child in the justice: state of play of multi-agency support 2) Harmonisation between Barnahus-type centres and existing interview rooms to avoid overlap and ensure comprehensive coverage 3) Participation of the victim in the criminal proceeding, including good practices for protecting victims from secondary victimization 4) Any other topic raised by participants related to the implementation of the revised Directive

 Activity: Focus Group Meetings (2 online meetings in 2026, organized in specific topics)

Programme: 2 Online Focus Group Meetings

Objective: The Online Focus Group Meeting is a specific workshop to discuss topics and issues that are either a priority for a Member State or at EU level.

Duration: 2-hours interactive online workshop

Working topics:

• Focus Group Meeting 1: Victims of organized crimes and victims of corruption. Witness and victim protection programs in general and in case of organized crimes (including informing the victim about the release of a prisoner from serving a prison sentence)
• Focus Group Meeting 2: Working with victims in cross-border cases: Good practices for overcoming language barriers: accessing to information in foreign languages, communication with victims in foreign languages, cooperation with interpretation services, IA solutions. Presenting successful national case studies of cross-border context. Challenges and good practices of cross-border cases including supporting and protecting child victims, addressing the phenomenon of under-reporting offences, in particular those which have a strong cross-border nature (such as e.g. cyber-enabled fraud)

Compensation Network

Activity: Meetings of the Compensation Network

Program: 4 workshops in 2026, of which 2 are in-person as part of the Spring Conference and 2 are online Objective: The basic aim of these meetings is to discuss the current issues (shortcomings, possible solutions, good practices) of the management of individual cross-border compensation cases arising in the daily practice, and the practical ways of a more effective application of the Compensation Directive. The compensation contact-points also contribute to knowledge development by discussing good practices of national schemes, both related to domestic and transnational case management.

Duration: 4 interactive workshop, 2-hours each

Working areas:

• Continue discussing practical matters arising in the (daily) operation of domestic and cross-border management
• Continue discussing about the creation of standardised procedures for secure data exchange between all support and decision-making authorities of the Member States, preferably via a secure EU platform
• Continue to improve national compensation authorities’ access to information on each other’s schemes
• Continue to improve communication and collaboration between national compensation authorities (e.g. by using English as official language for exchange between authorities; ensuring a prompt response or confirmation of receipt from the compensation or decision-making authorities upon receipt of mail)
• Continue to improve information provision to victims and make efforts to increase the number of reached victims in cross-border cases
• Continue building relations with units responsible for compensation in countries outside of the European Union
• Promote the regular data update on e-Justice related to national state compensation schemes
• Discussing EU-level policy developments relevant for the area of compensation
• The definition of “habitual resident” as eligibility criterium for compensation; e.g. in view of the Trafficking Directive and possibility of third country nationals on tourist visa
• Mutual recognition of medical findings to avoid additional burden on victims
• Provision of the compensation regulations in English on the homepage of the compensation authorities
• Standardized application deadline and, standardized appeal or legal remedy period

 SCPOVT Network

Activity: Meetings of the SCPVOT Network

Program: 4 workshops in 2026, of which 2 are in-person as part of the Spring Conference and 2 are online

Objective: The aim of these meetings is to be a hub of public experts in the area of supporting and protecting of victims of terrorism, and as such discuss the practice of managing of cross-border cases in the event of a mass attack, discussing EU-level legislative proposals when relevant, and forming cooperation with other stakeholders acting in the international area of rights of victims of terrorism. Moreover, the SCPOVT Network deals regularly with the issues of application of the Operation Protocol.

Duration: 4 interactive workshop, 2-hours each

Working areas:

• Continue exchange of good practices of supporting and protecting victims of terrorism
• Discussing EU-level legal instrument evaluations and legislative proposals related to the area of compensation to crime victims (when they arise);
• Operative cooperation within the SCPVOT Network (implementing the SCPVOT Operational Protocol)
• Continue to build cooperation with institutions outside of the EU
• Judicial cooperation-related challenges and best practices
• Diplomatic bodies cooperation-related challenges and good practices
• How to make sure that victims are informed about help and support services without overwhelming them with too much information (large number of letters, brochures, etc.). This appears to be a structural communication dilemma that might be common and an issue which doesn’t only show on a national level.
• The use of modern communication platforms for informing victims. Experiences and ideas on this could be shared, especially considering the particularities of cross-border cases.

Events available for all Networks of ENVR

Activity: Study visit

Program: 2 study visits in 2026

Objective: The study visit aims to get to know national practices closer, in small visit groups, by focusing on specific areas of victims’ rights.

Duration: 2 days per visit

Working topics:

The theme is to be decided on depending on the focus interest of the visiting and the hosting countries. The visiting and hosting countries will be selected after an open call that will be issued by the Association at the beginning of 2026. Experts from all the three branches of ENVR are welcome to apply for this programme.

Activity: Meeting the Consular Program

Program: 2 Meeting the Consular events in 2026

Objective: The program aims to address the phenomenon of low number of cross-border support cases. The idea of the program is based on the fact that embassies and consular services can play a substantial role in informing their citizens who are troubled in a foreign country and this can have a great potential for victim support services in reaching out to cross-border victims. The goal of the program is to bring together relevant stakeholders in order to form business relations and exchange useful information related to cross-border cases, including  exploring of synergies.

Duration: Half-day per event

The structure of the events in 2026

Desk researches

Activity: Collecting data in written and prepare a comparative study

Programme: Desk researches

Objective: Desk researches aim to reveal the national practice of different aspects of victims’ rights by collecting    data. The outcome of the desk researches is a comprehensive comparative study.

Duration: appr. 2 months per data collection

Working theme: “Working with vulnerable victims”

1. Victims’ rights and restorative justice
2. Information on victims’ rights – challenges and remedies

Online Hub

In 2026, AENVR continues to run its various online dissemination platforms (hereinafter referred to as Online Hub) with the purpose of providing information to both professionals and public about different aspects of victims’ rights. The parts of the Online Hub are:

ENVR website (target groups: public and professionals)

The ENVR website is operated with a public interface to inform general public and also with a qualified site developed for professionals with the purpose to disseminate professional information on a structural based outside the events organised. The website includes, at present, an interface offering a wide range of information to experts in general and, it has several dedicated subpages, such e.g. for single contact points for victims of terrorism, and for single contact points of compensation, a dedicated page on supporting victims of core international crimes, and a page dedicated to international cooperation. AENVR is committed to monitoring the needs of professionals for information and spread it. Therefore, it continuously develops and tailors the content of the website accordingly.

Find my victim support service online tool (target groups: public and professionals)

The database aims to map the general and specific victim support services, including accessibility data, in the EU Member States. The data base is serving dual purpose: on one hand the registration-linked restricted interface can facilitate the cooperation between national authorities by functioning as a catalogue of profile and accessibility data of national victim support services including contact data of colleagues working at those, and, on the other hand the public interface of the database can facilitate the general public access to public information on accessibility of national victim support services, therefore it can function as an international victim referral system. This can be especially useful in cross-border cases. The data is searchable by the location of the offence and, by the type of crime in the below categories. The database presently is available in 22 EU languages and in Ukrainian in the following 8 categories: general information, victims of terrorism, victims of human trafficking, victims of gender-based violence, child victims, victims of sexual abuse, information on compensation, available support mechanisms for victims of war crime. The database is available from the www.envr.eu website.

Find my best practice online tool (target group: professionals)

Over the years, the networks of ENVR dealt with several topics related to victims’ rights, in form of different workshops and desk researches. The outcomes of these activities are archived on the website and available there. The Find my best practice tool is a searching engine – based on a similar idea like the Find my victims support service tool – by code words it is able to list the relevant documents. The code words can be freely typed in the tool or can be chosen from a roll-down list.

Activities in the area of supporting victims of war crimes

In the second half of 2022, AENVR extended its activity to the area of supporting victims of war crimes, and the topic was assigned to agenda of the Generic Network. So far AENVR expanded its online victim referral tool ‘Find my victim support service’ by the new category of war crime victims and translated the whole tool into Ukrainian language as well; prepared a paper introducing the support structures available in the Member States for war crime victims; and monitored the development of these structures. It is suggested to review in 2026 the support structures available in the Member States for war crime victims.

[1] Directive 2012/29/EU on establishing minimum standards on the rights, support, and protection of victims of crime

[2] Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on combating terrorism and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA and amending Council Decision 2005/671/JHA

[3] EU strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025) (here)

[4] EU Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025) (here)

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3724

DISCLAIMER: The content of this discussion paper represents the views of the author only and it is his/her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.