European protection order

The judicial protection offered to a victim of violence and harassment can be enforced in other EU countries.

Right to continue to benefit from protection measures when moving to another Member State

To effectively protect victims of violence and harassment, national authorities often grant them specific measures (restraining, barring or a similar protection order) which help prevent further aggression or re-assault by the offender. If you have been granted a protection order in a Member State you may wish to continue to benefit from this protection when moving or travelling to another Member State. To this end, the EU has put in place a mechanism for the mutual recognition of protection measures.

National protection measures can be of civil, criminal or administrative nature and their duration, scope and procedures of adoption vary among the Member States. Due to separate legal bases in EU law for mutual recognition of civil law measures and criminal law measures, two separate instruments were required to ensure the circulation of the three most common types of protection measures within the EU. Protection orders covered by the Directive and the Regulation concern situations where you as a victim, or potential victim, of crime benefit from a prohibition or regulation of entering certain places, being contacted by or approached by a person causing risk.

Directive 2011/99/EU on the European Protection Order (EPO) sets up a mechanism allowing for the recognition of protection orders issued as a criminal law measure between Member States.

If you benefit from a protection order in criminal matters issued in one Member State you may request a European Protection Order.

Protection should be awarded through a new protection measure adopted by the Member State to which you will travel or move to following a simplified and accelerated procedure.

However, if you benefit from a civil law protection order issued in the Member State of your residence you may use Regulation (EU) No. 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters, which sets up a mechanism allowing for a direct recognition of protection orders issued as a civil law measure between Member States.

Therefore if you benefit from a civil law protection order issued in the Member State of your residence you may invoke it directly in other Member States by obtaining a certificate and presenting it to the relevant authorities certifying your rights.

The Directive and Regulation applies as of 11 January 2015.

Last update: 07/10/2020

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