Knowledge-based harmonisation of European asylum practices

The European Union has created the most complex legal regime for refugees in the world but the harmonisation process of this wide-reaching Community legislation has been arduously slow. This is largely due to the fact that Member States have not been properly prepared to transpose these instruments into their national system and more importantly, into their practice.

The “Knowledge-based harmonization of European asylum practices” project is coordinated by the HHC and several NGO partners take part in it: European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), Spanish Red Cross, Italian Council for Refugees and ACCEM from Spain.

The project started in July 2010 and ran until February 2012.

The project aimed to:

• Improve the preparedness of national asylum officers, lawyers, judges and NGO activists on the European asylum acquis across Europe by using existing teaching tools such as The Refugee Law Reader, particularly in regions/countries that have traditionally been inadequately represented in high-quality international training events due to financial and linguistic barriers (Mediterranean region, Eastern EU).
• Identify and promote exemplary judicial practices in the EU with regard to key areas of international and European refugee law; integrate this knowledge into mainstream refugee law education.
• Monitor the national follow-up of asylum-related judgments of the European Court of Justice and promote a harmonized and rights-based approach.

Four training courses were organized in the project (in Athens, Madrid, Budapest and Rome).

The closing conference of the project was held in Budapest.

In February 2012, the first-ever comparative study on the national impact and follow-up of asylum related judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union was published, which is one of the main results of this project.

The project was supported by the European Refugee Fund Community Actions.