IMPROVING THE PROCESSING OF ASYLUM APPLICATIONS
AND APPLICATIONS AGAINST REMOVAL OREDERS
Needs assessment visit of the Council of Europe representatives
Athens, 17 – 19 October 2016
PROGRAMME
Monday 17 October 2016
11.00 – 12.30 Meeting with the Ministry of Justice
14.00 – 17.00 Meeting with the First Instance Administrative Court of Athens
Tuesday 18 October 2016
09.00 – 12.00 Meeting with the administrative Court of Appeal of Athens
13.30 – 16.00 Meeting with the Council of State
16.30 – 18.00 Meeting with the Bar Association of Athens or any other independent advisers engaged in giving legal advice to asylum-seekers making their asylum application, or who have been refused and are lodging an appeal
Wednesday 19 October 2016
09.00 – 11.00 Meeting between CDCJ expert and the Ministry of Interior
11.30 – 12.30 Meeting between CDCJ expert and NGOs specialised on casework with asylum-seekers and refugees, whether that includes legal advice or not
PROPOSED ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION
· The performance of the administrative court system, based on already available data and with a special focus on the evolution of the incoming cases and the resolved cases, clearance rate and disposition time. The CEPEJ would be able to provide a more tailored analysis if the Greek authorities provide specific data related to migration and asylum cases.
· Ways to improve the efficiency of administrative courts as regards in particular:
- Prevention of excessive length of proceedings through the CEPEJ-SATURN instruments on judicial time management, including better monitoring of data, analysis and information by the courts; better planning, setting targets and intervention in case of delays;
- Structural measures, such as the recruitment of judicial and non-judicial staff, improvement of IT and courts’ infrastructure;
- Analysis of old pending cases and measures to decrease the number of pending cases, thereby liberating capacity for new ones;
- Introducing filters (requirement for leave to appeal, appeal only on limited grounds), and procedural rules aimed at accelerating the proceedings and reducing court time (e.g. written submissions only, requirements on judges to deliver judgments as soon as possible after the hearing);
The issue of how to improve the efficiency of administrative courts will be thoroughly examined during the meetings with the First Instance Administrative Court, the Appeal Court and the Council of State. After a general introduction of the participants, goals of the meeting and agenda, CEPEJ experts would be interested in getting a detailed presentation on each court focusing in particular on court’s organisation, resources (Human Resources, IT, rooms), main problems, and statistics. In turn, the CEPEJ experts will present the CEPEJ-SATURN tools and methodology and discuss with the court’s representatives the implementation degree of the 16 main SATURN Guidelines, as well as the next steps.
· Improving the procedural rules (applications and appeals):
A. Application stage
- Improving conformity of the Administration’s decision-making process in relation to asylum applications under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refuges with national law and ECHR & ECJ jurisprudence in order to reduce appeals.
- Improving the quality of legal advice available to applicants in order to reduce unfounded applications and increase the success rate of good claims at this stage.
B. 1st level appeal (from decision of the administrative authority to an administrative tribunal/court)
- Advise on procedural matters relating to the preparation of an appeal and the conduct of the hearing with a view to maximising the relevance of evidence and legal argument considered by the tribunal/court and weeding out what is irrelevant.
- Improving the pool of trained lawyers on effective and efficient case preparation and presentation.
- Advise on training specialised adjudicators/judges (both in weighing evidence and applying national and international law) and on the composition (single person or panels).
- Advise on decision-making and drafting clearly reasoned judgements (to reduce appeals).
- Advise on time-saving remedies – e.g. power of court to substitute its own decision for that of the administrative authority rather than a simple annulment.
C. 2nd level appeal (from the 1st level tribunal/court)
- Advise on introducing filters (requirement for leave to appeal, appeal only on limited grounds), tight timeframes, and procedural rules aimed at accelerating the proceedings and reducing court time (e.g. written submissions only, requirements on judges to deliver judgments as soon as possible after the hearing), also on giving the appeal court powers to regulate preparation by the parties with a view to avoiding/reducing delays.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE DELEGATION
Council of Europe Experts
Mrs Nina Betetto - Member of the Bureau of the Consultative Council for European Judges (CCJE), Judge, Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Slovenia.
Mrs Aida Bushati - Lawyer, Expert for the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)
Mr John Eames - Member of Steering Committee of Legal Cooperation (CDCJ), social security and immigration specialist, barrister (Garden Court Chambers, immigration cases -2011) and a tribunal judge (First-tier Tribunal : Immigration and Asylum Chamber since 2014 (previously member since 2003) and Social Entitlement Chamber (since 2011).
He was a member of the Council on Tribunals (now the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council) from 1996 to 2002.
He is also a law lecturer / trainer / consultant at “Express training associates” since May 1994.
Council of Europe Secretariat
Mrs Clementina Barbaro - Head of CEPEJ Cooperation Unit, Division for Independence and Efficiency of justice, Justice and Legal Cooperation Department
Mrs Lilit Daneghian - Head of the Justice Sector Reform Unit 1, Division for Legal Cooperation, Justice and Legal Cooperation Department.
Interpreters
Mr Stavros Agoglossakis
Mr Alexander Zaphiriou