Eligibility to participate

1. Citizenship of, residency in or place of work in should be a country eligible for the Justice Programme (all Member States except Denmark; including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Moldova** and Ukraine).

2. The contest is open to lawyers in private practice at the beginning of their career. ’Young lawyers’ are those who are, at the time of registration, considered trainee lawyers under national law, including those who are in an induction or apprenticeship period; in jurisdictions in which initial training does not include a period of legal practice, newly qualified lawyers with less than three years of experience can apply. The organisers reserve the right to request proof of apprenticeship or qualification during the application process.

3. Participants should have a working knowledge of English.

Participation costs

4. Young lawyers nominated by Bars financing the project participate free of charge or will be reimbursed by their bars. For participants applying independently or through other Bars, a fee of 200 Euro will be charged, including costs for documentation, lunch(es), coffee break(s) and dinner(s). No discounts are given.

Travel, Accommodation and Catering 

5. Applicants will be subject to a selection procedure. ERA will send confirmation of selection to each participant individually. Confirmed participants are eligible to receive a fixed contribution towards their travel expenses following the event.

6. Travel cost contributions are based on the distance between the place of work and the event venue (distance only one way – reimbursement amount is for the total travel cost) location and will not take account of the participant’s actual travel and accommodation costs. Please note that no contribution can be paid for travel under 50km. The reimbursement will be calculated as follows: 

51-199 km €100 

200-399 km € 200 

400-600 km € 245 

601-800 km €261 

801-1200 km € 276 

1201-1600 km €288 

Over 1601 €369 

To calculate the distance please visit: 

https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/procedures-guidelines-tenders/information-contractors-and-beneficiaries/calculate-unit-costs-eligible-travel-costs_en

7. For the semi-finals, participants shall book their own accommodation. The condition for payment of this contribution is to participate and sign all attendance sheets at the event. No supporting documents (i.e., invoice, ticket or boarding pass) are needed. Accommodation cost contribution (1 night) for the YELC semi-finals: 

Semi-final in Barcelona: €160 

Semi-final in Brussels: €144 

Semi-final in Lisbon: €135

8. For the final in Trier and Luxembourg, ERA will take care of booking and covering up to 3 nights’ single use accommodation including breakfast for the contestants selected to participate in the final. 

9. Successful applicants will be sent the relevant claim form and information on how to obtain payment of the contribution to their expenses. Please note that no payment is possible if the registered participant cancels their participation for any reason. 

10. Catering: ERA provides dinner the evening before, the lunch and the coffee break during the semi-final. In the final, ERA provides 2 dinners, 3 lunches and all coffee breaks in the programme.

11. No per diem or daily allowance is available.  

Participation

12. Selected participants will be asked to book their travel as soon as possible and confirm their itinerary to ERA.

13. Participation at the whole contest is required and participants’ presence will be logged. A list of participants including each participant’s working address will be made available to all participants unless ERA receives written objection from the participant no later than one week prior to the beginning of the event. 

14. Participants are asked to give permission for their address and other relevant information to be stored in ERA’s database in order to provide information about future ERA events, publications and/or other developments in the participant’s area of interest. 

15. A certificate of attendance will be distributed after the end of the conference.

* this designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence

** this designation applies to the extent that participants do not replace the European quotas provided for.