The Final Conference of the Pilot Project 4 “Quality and training in the asylum processes: the European Asylum Curriculum” of the Prague Process Targeted Initiative took place in Nuremberg on 19-20 March 2014

The Final Conference of the Pilot Project 4 “Quality and training in the asylum processes: the European Asylum Curriculum” of the Prague Process Targeted Initiative  took place in Nuremberg on 19-20 March 2014, and gathered 44 representatives of 19 countries, the European Commission, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), UNHCR and ICMPD. The conference consisted of a 1, 5 day meeting and was focused on the final outcomes and results of the project, which was implemented in a 19 months period (August 2012 - April 2014) and was led by Germany and Sweden.

The first conference day started with the presentation and further discussion of the topic “The importance of training and of quality assurance mechanism in the asylum process”. In his presentation Mr Francois Bienfait, Head of the Centre for Training, Quality and Expertise of the EASO, explained in detail the interconnection of quality and training, and provided examples showing that qualified staff is more efficient, what in turn proves that quality and efficiency are compatible.

The next session of the conference was devoted to the presentation of the updated Roadmaps of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine. All the six participating countries gave a presentation on their country specific road maps and described the procedures and training programmes in their national systems. The last session of the first conference day was organised in a form of “Open space discussion”. Participants were invited to share their ideas on 4 different topics:  the network for trainers and regional cooperation, national training programs of peer partners, next steps in the PP, and rhetoric standards.

The main attention of the second conference day has been given to the presentation and discussion of the Prague Process Guidelines, a key document of the Pilot project on asylum. Ms Anna Bengtsson presented the document and welcomed participants to comment and provide with their suggestions on the Guidelines, underlining the importance of their involvement and reminding that the future steps of the PP TI will mainly depend on the activity of the states.

The last presentation was made by Ms Agnieszka Kulesa, PP TI Coordinator, who has reflected on the possible future steps in the PP TI. She informed all participants about the additional funding, which was provided by the European Commission and which will be used for implementation of the 3 new projects (each 14 months).  The new projects’ proposals shall be adopted during the Senior Officials’ meeting in Berlin on 28-29 October 2014. Though the topics of the new projects are still to be identified, but, based on the interests of the countries in asylum, one of the future projects will most probably be on asylum and international protection.

The representatives of the leading states, Germany and Sweden, expressed their gratitude to all the parties involved in the implementation of this project, and closed the conference. It was noted, that the Final version of the Guidelines will be shared for comments after the conference.