The revised EU Victim Rights Directive has been published and EU Member States have now until 2 July 2028 to transpose the Directive into national law.
La Strada International has closely monitored the revision of the Directive, and with PICUM we advocated towards MEPs and governments, for stronger binding provisions on compensation and access to legal aid, a clear firewall to prevent information disclosed when reporting a crime from being used for migration enforcement purposes. We also advocated for stronger references to third-party reporting, and the granting of autonomous residence permits or other authorisation to stay to third-country nationals without legal residence.
In total, the revision process took nearly 3 years. On 12 July 2023, the European Commission adopted a proposal to revise the Victims’ Rights Directive and 2,5 years later, the negotiators reached a political agreement on the revised text on 10 December 2025. It then still took 6 more months to get it formally adopted. On 8 of June, the EU Council adopted the revised Victims’ Rights Directive , after it had already indicated in February to proceed with formal adoption. Last month, also the EU parliament adopted the final text in plenary on 18 May, which passed with 440 votes in favour, 49 against and 84 abstentions. On 25 February 2026, the LIBE and FEMM Committees adopted the agreed text.