Duty to cooperate in good faith and exchange information
1. The Agency and the national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services shall cooperate in good faith.
2. In order to perform the tasks and obligations conferred on them by this Regulation, in particular for the Agency to carry out the tasks referred to in Article 2, the Agency and the national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services shall exchange all necessary information in a timely and accurate manner.
3. The Agency shall work closely with the national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services and with the Commission. The Agency shall carry out its tasks without prejudice to those assigned to other relevant Union bodies, offices and agencies. The Agency shall cooperate with those bodies, offices and agencies, intergovernmental organisations, in particular the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and other relevant organisations as provided for in this Regulation.
4. The Agency shall organise, promote and coordinate activities enabling the exchange of information among Member States, including through the establishment of networks, as appropriate.
5. Where, after calling upon a Member State to provide the Agency with the information necessary for it to perform its tasks in accordance with this Regulation, the Executive Director establishes that the Member State concerned has systematically failed to do so, he or she shall report that fact to the Management Board and to the Commission.
Information analysis on the situation of asylum
1. The Agency shall gather and analyse information on the situation of asylum in the Union and in third countries insofar as it might have an impact on the Union, including up-to-date information on root causes, migratory and refugee flows, the presence of unaccompanied minors, the overall reception capacity and resettlement needs of third countries, and possible arrivals of large numbers of third-country nationals which might subject the Member States’ asylum and reception systems to disproportionate pressure, with a view to providing timely and reliable information to the Member States and to identifying possible risks to the Member States’ asylum and reception systems.
For the purpose set out in the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the Agency shall work in close collaboration with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency and shall, as appropriate, take into account the risk analysis carried out by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency under Article 29 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 so as to ensure the highest level of consistency and convergence in the information provided by the Agency and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
2. The Agency shall base its analysis on information provided, in particular, by Member States, relevant Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the UNHCR, in particular the UNHCR Global Resettlement Needs reports. The Agency may also take into account information available from relevant organisations on the basis of their expertise.
3. The Agency shall ensure the rapid exchange of relevant information among Member States and with the Commission. It shall also submit, in a timely and accurate manner, the results of its analysis to the Management Board. The Agency shall report on its analysis to the European Parliament twice a year.
Information on the implementation of the CEAS
1. The Agency shall organise, coordinate and promote the exchange of information among the Member States and between the Commission and the Member States concerning the implementation of Union law on asylum.
2. The Agency shall create databases and web portals on Union, national and international asylum instruments, making use, in particular, of existing arrangements. No personal data shall be stored in those databases or published on those web portals, unless such data has been obtained by the Agency from sources that are publicly accessible.
3. The databases and web portals referred to in paragraph 2 shall have publicly accessible parts which shall contain the following:
(a)
statistics on applications for international protection and on decisions taken by national authorities responsible for asylum matters;
(b)
information on national law and legal developments in the field of asylum, including case law;
(c)
information on relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘CJEU’) and of the European Court of Human Rights.
Liaison officers in Member States
1. The Executive Director shall appoint experts from the Agency’s staff to be deployed as liaison officers in Member States.
2. The Executive Director shall, in consultation with the Member States concerned, make a proposal on the nature and terms of the deployment and on the Member State or region to which a liaison officer may be deployed. The Executive Director may decide that a liaison officer covers up to four Member States which are geographically close to each other. The proposal from the Executive Director shall be subject to approval by the Management Board.
3. The Executive Director shall notify the Member State concerned of the appointment of liaison officers and shall determine, together with that Member State, the location of deployment.
4. Liaison officers shall act on behalf of the Agency and shall foster cooperation and dialogue between the Agency and the national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services. Liaison officers shall, in particular:
(a)
act as an interface between the Agency and national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services;
(b)
support the collection of information referred to in Article 5 and any other information required by the Agency;
(c)
contribute to promoting the application of Union law on asylum, including with regard to respect for fundamental rights;
(d)
where requested, assist the Member States in preparing their contingency planning for measures to be taken to deal with possible disproportionate pressure on their asylum and reception systems;
(e)
facilitate communication between Member States and between the Member State concerned and the Agency, and share relevant information from the Agency with the Member State concerned, including information about ongoing assistance;
(f)
regularly provide reports to the Executive Director on the situation of asylum in the Member State concerned and its capacity to manage its asylum and reception systems effectively.
Where the reports referred to in point (f) of the first subparagraph raise concerns about one or more aspects relevant for the Member State concerned, the Executive Director shall inform that Member State without delay. Those reports shall be taken into account for the purposes of the monitoring mechanism referred to in Article 14 and shall be transmitted to the Member State concerned.
5. For the purposes of paragraph 4, liaison officers shall stay in regular contact with the national authorities responsible for asylum and immigration and other relevant services, keeping a point of contact designated by the Member State concerned informed.
6. In carrying out their duties, liaison officers shall take instructions only from the Agency.
Training
1. The Agency shall establish, develop and review training for members of its own staff and members of the staff of relevant national administrations, courts and tribunals, and of national authorities responsible for asylum and reception.
2. The Agency shall develop training as referred to in paragraph 1 in close cooperation with Member States and, where appropriate, with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, established by Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 ( 19 ) , and relevant training entities, academic institutions, judicial associations, training networks and organisations.
3. The Agency shall develop a European asylum curriculum taking into account the existing cooperation within the Union in the field of asylum in order to promote best practices and high standards in the implementation of Union law on asylum.
Member States shall develop appropriate training for their staff pursuant to their obligations under Union law on asylum on the basis of the European asylum curriculum and shall include core parts of that curriculum in that training.
4. The training offered by the Agency shall be of high quality and shall identify key principles and best practices with a view to ensuring greater convergence of administrative methods, decisions and legal practices, while fully respecting the independence of national courts and tribunals.
As part of the European asylum curriculum, the training offered by the Agency shall cover, in particular:
(a)
international and Union fundamental rights standards, in particular the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’), as well as international and Union law on asylum, including specific legal issues and case law;
(b)
issues related to the determination of whether an applicant qualifies for international protection and the rights of beneficiaries of international protection;
(c)
issues related to the processing of applications for international protection;
(d)
interview techniques;
(e)
evidence assessment;
(f)
relevant case law of national courts, the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights and other relevant developments in the field of asylum law;
(g)
issues related to fingerprint data, including data protection aspects, data quality and data security requirements;
(h)
the use of expert medical and legal reports in the procedure for international protection;
(i)
issues related to the production and use of information on third countries;
(j)
reception conditions;
(k)
issues related to minors, in particular unaccompanied minors, as regards the best interests of the child assessment, specific procedural safeguards such as respect of the child’s right to be heard and other child protection aspects, age assessment techniques, and reception conditions for children and families;
(l)
issues related to applicants in need of special procedural guarantees, applicants with special reception needs and other persons in a vulnerable situation, with particular attention to victims of torture, to victims of human trafficking and to related gender-sensitive issues;
(m)
issues related to interpretation and cultural mediation;
(n)
issues related to resettlement;
(o)
issues related to the handling of relocation procedures;
(p)
resilience and stress-management skills, in particular for staff in managerial positions.
5. The Agency shall provide general, specific or thematic training as well as ad hoc training activities, including by using the ‘train the trainers’ methodology and e-learning.
6. The Agency shall take the initiatives necessary to verify and, where appropriate, ensure that the experts, including experts not employed by it, who participate in asylum support teams have received the training relevant to their duties and functions that is necessary for their participation in the operational activities organised by the Agency.
The Agency shall, where necessary and in advance of or upon deployment, provide the experts referred to in the first subparagraph with training which is specific to the operational and technical assistance provided in the Member State concerned (the ‘host Member State’).
7. The Agency may organise training activities on the territory of a Member State or a third country in cooperation with that Member State or third country.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
