Meeting of CJP with Commissioner Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova
On 4th February 2016 the Commissioner Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, had a meeting with representatives of the Criminal Justice Platform Europe (CJP): : Marc Cerón President Confederation of European Probation (CEP), Hans Maurisse President EuroPris and Daria Nashat Executive Director European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ).
Commissioner Jourová congratulated the Criminal Justice Platform with their work which represents three important areas of the Criminal Justice sector – Restorative Justice, Probation and Prisons. She underlined that cooperation and communication between these three areas are important. All three CJP organisations are cooperating closely with the European Commission to support the implementation of European Criminal Justice policies and priorities.
Commissioner Jourova presented her concerns with regard to the needs of war refugees. There is a danger for them to being excluded from society and to end up in a vulnerable position that potentially could become an incubator of criminality. There is a need to work with families, to avoid exclusion and to address social fragility, partly through using Restorative Justice for community building.
Part of the discussion was also the issue of Radicalisation. Addressing the prevention of radicalisation is one of the key priorities of the Commission. An important aspect in this regard is the training of prison and probation staff. The connections of EuroPris with the European Prison Training Academies and of CEP with the Criminal Justice Social Work Project can support the efforts of the Commission in this field.
The Platform also invited Commissioner Jourova to the upcoming Conference on of the CJP on Radicalisation and Violent Extremism on 26 April in Barcelona. This is the second conference that the three network organisations jointly developed on this issue. The first one took place in October 2015 in Barcelona.