The Daphne Programmes 

Actions to prevent and combat violence against women were promoted by European Union programmes at the end of the 1990s with the launch of the Daphne initiative - subsequently the Daphne Programmes. Daphne came about as a result of a European Parliament resolution on the need to establish an EU-wide campaign for zero tolerance of violence against women.

On 24 January 2000, the European Parliament and the EU Council adopted the first Daphne programme (2000-2003), based on the Daphne initiative, to prevent and combat violence against children, young people and women. As a consequence of its success, the programme was renewed twice, in 2004 and 2007. In between its budget increased from the equivalent of €20 million to almost €120 million for Daphne III.

The aim of this programme is to support organisations (administrations, local municipalities, NGOs, research centres and other related bodies from all the Member States, candidate countries, EFTA states and the countries of the Western Balkans) that develop measures and actions to prevent or to combat all types of violence against women and children.

In April 2005, the Commission proposed establishing a general "Fundamental rights and Justice Framework Programme" comprising four special programmes including one which combined the fight against violence (Daphne) with drug prevention and information measures. Parliament rejected this idea, arguing that this combination could have the effect of undermining the impact and the efficiency of the Daphne programme.

On 20 June 2007, the European Parliament and the Council decided to establish the Daphne II Programme (2007-2013) to prevent and combat violence against children, young people and women and to protect victims and groups at risk as part of the General Programme "Fundamental Rights and Justice".

Since it was launched, the Daphne programme had helped to finance more than 500 projects.