In straitened times for most businesses, public money can be a welcome support. It is well-known that the European Commission offers millions of euros in funding for projects over a wide span of subjects. Some law firms and legal academics apply regularly for project-funding. The Commission’s Directorate General for Justice has over the last few weeks published a number of calls for proposals, including two calls last week in the area of civil and criminal justice.

First you need to understand how funding works. It has many technicalities. For instance, DG Justice offers two types: tenders (where it buys goods or services, and for which it provides 100% of the money); and calls for proposals under five programmes, where the funding is only partial, usually up to 80%. The five programmes are: Civil Justice, Criminal Justice, Daphne III (violence against women, children, young people, victims, groups at risk), Drug Prevention and Information, and Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. The first two are principally of interest to lawyers.

Although I aim to be encouraging, don’t believe that it is easy to run projects. First, you have to apply, which requires thought, budget-planning, and often both a cross-border element and partners. You are not given pre-funding for putting in your application, and this can take hours - days - of drafting and negotiating. The proposal is strictly judged by panels, and so the written submission and budget are all-important. Once you have been successful, the project has to be managed within the specified time limit. Of their nature, projects are subject to unforeseen circumstances, particularly where you depend on other people for part of the performance (which is nearly always).

There has to be careful accounting of the expenses, and that can be difficult because cross-border VAT - and projects usually demand a cross-border element - and charging VAT to the Commission - which is usually forbidden - are complex subjects. And, when you finally submit the report to the Commission, the Commission might not be satisfied and so demand further work to be undertaken or, in the worst case, the return of some or all of the money.

In the face of this, why undertake projects? Some do it once or twice and never again, because of the difficulties. For others - and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe is in this category - the work is vital for their general mission. For instance, we have recently undertaken the following: the development of factsheets on suspects’ and defendants’ rights in all the member states (a tender for the European e-justice portal, and so it was 100% funded); and an ongoing project to develop a search engine that will provide citizens with details of lawyers in any member state in accordance with certain search criteria such as language and practice area (the so-called Find-A-Lawyer project, which was submitted under a call for proposals, and so is only 80% funded, and which will also be placed eventually on the European e-justice portal).

Now we come to the news. As I mentioned, the Commission launched calls for proposals (that is, 80% funded) in the area of civil and criminal justice last week. There will not be similar calls for proposals for a further two years. The criminal call covers the following priorities: supporting victims of crime; procedural and defence rights for suspected and accused persons (including legal interpretation and translation); European judicial training of European legal practitioners; networking and exchanging best practice among practitioners, including implementation of existing cooperation instruments, procedural rights, victims' rights, restorative justice, mediation and detention; improving conditions relating to detention; and e-Justice (which covers either civil or criminal projects).

The civil call covers projects aimed at: promoting judicial cooperation in civil matters; promoting the elimination of obstacles to the good functioning of cross-border civil proceedings in the member states; improving the daily life of individuals and businesses; and contacts, exchange of information and networking between legal, judicial and administrative authorities and the legal professions.

There is a good deal more detail in the Commission’s published paperwork at the links provided. There are millions of euros available overall, and well-managed projects can assist not only with substantive goals, but also with enhancing the status - and, of course in these times, the budget - of an organisation. If you are successful, just don’t expect to sleep for the next two years.

Jonathan Goldsmith is secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, which represents about one million European lawyers through its member bars and law societies. He blogs weekly for the Gazette on European affairs