Council Directive 2004/80/EC of 29 April 2004 relating to compensation to crime victims

This Directive sets up a system of cooperation to help victims of crime get compensation in situations regardless of where in the EU the crime was committed.
The system operates on the basis of EU countries’ national compensation schemes for victims of violent intentional crime committed on their own territories. The directive has two main elements. It requires all EU countries to have a compensation scheme for victims of violent intentional crime committed on their territories. The organisation and operation of such schemes is left to the discretion of each EU country.
It sets up an EU-wide cooperation system based on those national schemes.