Visit of Mrs. Malmström and Mr. Wathelet to the CGRS

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ms Cecilia MALMSTRÖM and Belgian State Secretary for Migration & Asylum Mr Melchior WATHELET attend together with Belgian asylum officers a session of the European Asylum Curriculum (EAC) to express their support to this good example of practical cooperation between European Asylum administrations.

In the first days of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) has the pleasure to welcome on Monday July 5th at 1.00 PM Ms Cecilia MALMSTRÖM and Mr Melchior WATHELET to attend part of a training session of the European Asylum Curriculum, an important tool for reaching a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) by 2012. The Stockholm Programme aims to establish a Common European Asylum System based on high protection standards, with the full and inclusive application of the Geneva Convention on the status of refugees, the EU asylum Directives and other relevant international treaties. The objective should be that similar asylum cases should be treated alike through the EU and result in the same outcome. The development of a common educational platform for national asylum officials of all EU member states is crucial in order to achieve a higher degree of harmonization, by enhancing the convergence and ongoing quality with a view to reducing disparities of asylum decisions. The European Asylum Curriculum (EAC) has been developed with EU funding in order to reach that goal. In a near future this project will be hosted in the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) to be opened in Malta later this year. Now that the EAC training modules have been produced by EU experts from different national administrations and the Academic Odysseus Network, the next challenge for the asylum administrations is to implement those modules in the national training programs for their staff members. "Together with the Swedish Migration Board, the Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons is implementing the EAC modules in a large scale in the training of its protection officers. By the end of 2010 more than 100 staff members will have been involved in this training", says François BIENFAIT, Belgian Deputy Commissioner for Refugees and Stateless Persons and EAC Project Manager at CGRS, "We are also already using EAC in a capacity building project with the asylum administration in Burundi". For more information: https://www.asylum-curriculum.eu This event will be held in ENGLISH. Press is invited to attend this event (see below) Address Venue: The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons Entrance for visitors and press: Chaussée d'Anvers 59 – 1000 Brussels (in proximity to the Gare de Nord and Metro Rogier/Yser). Please register at the reception desk – first floor. Programme Date: Monday July 5th 2010 1.10 – 1.20 PM: Presentation of the training participants 1.20 – 1.25 PM: Presentation of the e.learning part of this EAC inclusion module (determining who is a refugee and who is in need of subsidiary protection) by Mr Bienfait 1.25 – 1.50 PM: Face to face training of the EAC module on Inclusion 1.50 – 2.00 PM: discussion between Ms Malmström, Mr Wathelet and training participants 2.00 – 2.15 PM: press moment with Ms Malmström, Mr Wathelet, Mr Bienfait or training participants Registration Journalists are required to confirm their presence at the latest on Monday July 5th at 9.00 AM by contacting Ms Tine Van Valckenborgh, + 32 499 24 60 93. - For the press attending the entire meeting (including the training session), presence is required at 12.45 PM. - For those attending only the Q&A session between Ms Malmström, Mr Wathelet and the training participants at 1.50 PM (after the training session), presence is required at 1.30 PM. Press Contact: Ms Tine Van Valckenborgh Tel.: + 32 2 205 50 56 - + 32 499 24 60 93 Fax: + 32 2 205 51 15 E-mail: tine.vanvalckenborgh@ibz.fgov.be