Withdrawal from EU justice programmes could see British charities lose millions, ministers warned

British charities and organisations risk losing millions in funding for victim support, child protection, research and human rights because of the Government's planned withdrawal from European Union justice and home affairs programmes, it emerged last night.


Plans to withdraw from an EU regulation which oversees the grants to charities will have a major impact on their work, ministers have been warned.

One of the organisations, Fair Trials International, has told the Government that it may have to relocate to another country because of the threatened impact on funding. The organisation, which has received £1.09m in EU funding under the justice programme since 2010, said its work offering assistance to people facing criminal charges abroad would be severely limited, because the money amounts to a third of its total funding.

A new EU regulation covering 2014 to 2020 will combine three streams of Brussels funding for organisations, charities and universities whose work covers justice and home affairs – including Victim Support, Fair Trials International, Beatbullying, the Fatherhood Institute, the British Refugee Council, the British Association for Adoption and Fostering and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa). The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has received money for cross-EU cooperation into fingerprint research.

If the UK does not opt into this regulation by next year, all British-based charities and organisations will become ineligible for the grants. Last year, UK organisations eligible for the justice funding received 19 per cent of their total income this way.

Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, announced last year that, as part of the UK's much-heralded opt-out from EU justice and home affairs – which delighted many Conservative MPs – the Government would not opt back into the regulation on justice funding. When the justice programme was agreed in Brussels earlier this month, Britain's position did not change, and it is understood that, despite intensive lobbying of Mr Grayling, there will be no U-turn.



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