Report and recording of personal interviews
Article 17
1. Member States shall ensure that either a thorough and factual report containing all substantive elements or a transcript is made of every personal interview. 2. Member States may provide for audio or audiovisual recording of the personal interview. Where such a recording is made, Member States shall ensure that the recording or a transcript thereof is available in connection with the applicant’s file. 3. Member States shall ensure that the applicant has the opportunity to make comments and/or provide clarification orally and/or in writing with regard to any mistranslations or misconceptions appearing in the report or in the transcript, at the end of the personal interview or within a specified time limit before the determining authority takes a decision. To that end, Member States shall ensure that the applicant is fully informed of the content of the report or of the substantive elements of the transcript, with the assistance of an interpreter if necessary. Member States shall then request the applicant to confirm that the content of the report or the transcript correctly reflects the interview. When the personal interview is recorded in accordance with paragraph 2 and the recording is admissible as evidence in the appeals procedures referred to in Chapter V, Member States need not request the applicant to confirm that the content of the report or the transcript correctly reflects the interview. Without prejudice to Article 16, where Member States provide for both a transcript and a recording of the personal interview, Member States need not allow the applicant to make comments on and/or provide clarification of the transcript. 4. Where an applicant refuses to confirm that the content of the report or the transcript correctly reflects the personal interview, the reasons for his or her refusal shall be entered in the applicant’s file. Such refusal shall not prevent the determining authority from taking a decision on the application. 5. Applicants and their legal advisers or other counsellors, as defined in Article 23, shall have access to the report or the transcript and, where applicable, the recording, before the determining authority takes a decision. Where Member States provide for both a transcript and a recording of the personal interview, Member States need not provide access to the recording in the procedures at first instance referred to in Chapter III. In such cases, they shall nevertheless provide access to the recording in the appeals procedures referred to in Chapter V. Without prejudice to paragraph 3 of this Article, where the application is examined in accordance with Article 31(8), Member States may provide that access to the report or the transcript, and where applicable, the recording, is granted at the same time as the decision is made.