To bring the judiciary and legal professions in the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine closer to the EU legal community, the Fund will support projects that, on the one hand, provide opportunities for trainers to visit the main centres of EU law and, on the other hand, bring high-quality EU law training to practitioners in those countries and in their own languages.

Study visits

EU law training requires knowledge and expertise. The experience of working in a European context can prove invaluable in understanding how EU law affects daily legal practice in the Member States. In order to support the development of high-quality EU law training at national and local level, the ERA Fund for the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine will fund study visits for trainers at ERA, as well as to the Court of Justice and other European institutions.

At ERA, we have over 30 years’ experience in developing EU law training. By covering the costs of such study visits, the Fund will allow people responsible for training the legal professions in the target countries to take home valuable knowledge and expertise for the future. The cost of organising a study visit varies according to the number of participants and price of travel from their countries of origin, but – as an example – the estimated average budget for a group of 10 participants is €15,000.

Bringing ERA training to practitioners

To fulfil our mission to provide EU law training to the (potential) candidate countries, ERA must cooperate with local training actors to bring our training programmes to practitioners at national level. Organising high-quality European training programmes at a price that is accessible to practitioners in those countries will be a challenge, however.

The aim of the ERA Fund for the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine is to ensure that all legal practitioners in the (potential) candidate countries, whatever their income, can benefit from locally delivered, high-quality EU law training programmes. By providing part of the funding for such programmes, the Fund will keep participants’ contributions affordable and accessible to all.

The cost of organising a one-day face-to-face training seminar ranges from €5,000 to €10,000, depending on the number of external speakers and whether simultaneous interpretation is required.

New projects for 2026-2027

For the period 2026-2027, we plan to focus our efforts on two specific projects in the target countries.

1. The first project involves setting up a network of national court coordinators in Albania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine who specialise in EU law. We hope that raising funding for this project will assist us in accessing EU funding to expand the project.
2. The second project involves delivering at least one intensive one-week course on EU law for early-career lawyers in private practice in these countries. This will build on the success of our Young European Lawyers Academy.