Member States’ best practices on the Charter

Portugal

Use and awareness of the Charter in your country.

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Portugal

Government policies that promote the use and awareness of the Charter among the legislator, the administration, law enforcement bodies and the judiciary

Specific references to or explanations on the application of the Charter

  • In 2019, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy (Ministry of Justice) produced a guide on the application of the Charter in relation to the implementation of European funds, aimed at professionals working in this area.

Training on the application of the Charter

  • Training for judges and other legal professionals:
    • The Centre for Judicial Studies (Centro de Estudos Judiciários) offers initial and continuous training for judges and prosecutors both on EU law in general and on specific questions of EU law. The Charter is covered in this training. Lawyers and other legal professionals can also take part in conferences and seminars organised by the Centre.
    • In 2018, the Centre organised a whole day's training course focusing specifically on the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Charter. The course programme, video footage and relevant texts can be found here.
    • Under the ‘HELP in the EU III’ programme, the Centre’s 2022-2023 continuous training plan includes ongoing training for judges and the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público) to promote competences in applying the Charter.
  • Training for beneficiaries involved in the implementation of EU funds:
    • In June 2019, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy held a training course for all Ministry of Justice bodies on the application of the Charter in relation to the implementation of EU funds.

Tools that help better understand the Charter and when it applies

For practitioners (legislator, administration, law enforcement, judiciary, legal practitioners):

  • The Centre for Judicial Studies publishes a regular newsletter on CJEU case-law: http://www.cej.mj.pt/cej/newsletter_tjue_cej/newsletter_tjue_cej.php;
  • In 2019, the Directorate-General for Justice Policy produced a guide on the application of the Charter in relation to the implementation of European funds, aimed at professionals working in this area.

For citizens:

Use and promotion of Charter tools developed by other EU countries or by other stakeholders in the EU

The Ministry of Justice website has a dedicated webpage on the Charter, which refers to the tools made available by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and includes a link to the Agency’s website.

Cooperation with stakeholders to promote the use and awareness of the EU Charter of fundamental rights

Examples of cooperation between rights defenders and national authorities that contribute to a better awareness and use of the Charter

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Examples of cooperation between national authorities and academia that contribute to a better awareness and use of the Charter

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Examples of non-governmental initiatives that promote the use and awareness of the Charter in your country

  • The project ‘The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union “in action”’
    This project was funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers and developed by a consortium of European universities (the Human Rights Institute of Catalonia, the University of Utrecht – School of Law, and the University of Szczecin). In Portugal, the project was coordinated by the Permanent Observatory for Justice (Observatório Permanente de Justiça) of Coimbra University’s Centre for Social Studies (Centro de Estudos Sociais) and involved the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (Conselho Superior da Magistratura), the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Centre for Judicial Studies and the Bar Association (Ordem dos Advogados). The main aim of the project was to develop a broad training programme to strengthen the competences of judicial actors in relation to the application of the Charter, so that they would be better able to interpret and apply it. The project sought not only to help overcome difficulties relating to the lack of knowledge about the Charter, highlighting the need to raise more awareness of it, but also to better explain the relevance of the Charter at national level and within the European Area of Justice.
    Various training courses and conferences were organised in 2018 as part of this project, aimed primarily at judicial actors. Online training was also provided: https://ces.uc.pt/cfr/moodle/.
    A Manual of Best Practice and a Training Manual were also developed as a result of the project.
    All information about this initiative is available at: https://www.ces.uc.pt/cfr/..
  • The project 'E-Learning National Active Charter Training’ (e-NACT)
    Funded by the European Commission’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme, this project involves several European universities, including the Centre for Research in Public Law (Centro de Investigação de Direito Público) (CIDP) of Lisbon University’s Faculty of Law. It aims to provide a training methodology and training activities, which, coupled with the expertise of the trainers involved, will foster the emergence and consolidation of a common culture of fundamental rights.
    This initiative also offers e-learning courses and thematic handbooks on various areas of law.
    In 2019, three workshops on data protection, asylum and migration, and freedom of expression were held at Lisbon University’s Faculty of Law, primarily for lawyers, judges and prosecutors from the Public Prosecutor’s Office – https://www.icjp.pt/cidp/eventos/17759/programa.
    For more information about this project, consult: https://cjc.eui.eu/projects/e-nact/.
  • Conference ‘The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the judicial activism of the CJEU: a bill of rights under pressure?’
    In 2017, Lisbon University’s Faculty of Law organised a conference on the Charter and the judicial activism of the CJEU. In 2018, following this conference, an edition of the online public law journal, e-Pública – Revista Eletrónica de Direito Público, focused on this issue (Vol. 5 Noº 2 July 2018).
Last update: 05/10/2023

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