New EU Agency for Asylum starts work with reinforced mandate
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA
) replaces the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) with more tools to support Member States in bringing greater convergence to asylum and reception practices at the EU’s high standards.
On 19 January 2022, the new mandate of the EUAA entered into force following agreement last year between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the European Commission’s proposal. It marks the first of the proposals to reform the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) to be approved, and a significant step forward in the modernisation of the EU’s asylum and reception practices.
This is a crucial moment for asylum and reception in the EU. The EUAA is a unique agency, with the tools and ability to support Member States and the Union itself in tangibly improving the application of the world’s only multinational asylum system. It demonstrates yet again that the EU can rise above political challenges, and I am confident that this significant accomplishment will act as an enabler for progress of other files in the asylum and migration reform portfolio.
Nina Gregory EUAA’s Executive Director
The former agency, EASO, had already been operating at the very limits of its mandate, providing an ever-increasing amount of technical and operational support to Member States over the past years. If the agency were an EU+ Member State, it would rank seventh in terms of registrations performed, and ninth in terms of opinions for decisions1 issued.
The composition of the Management Team and Management Board of EASO automatically transfers to the EUAA, including the roles of Executive Director and Chair of the Management Board.
Commenting on the entry into force of the new Regulation, the EUAA’s Executive Director, Nina Gregori, stated: “This is a crucial moment for asylum and reception in the EU. The EUAA is a unique agency, with the tools and ability to support Member States and the Union itself in tangibly improving the application of the world’s only multinational asylum system. It demonstrates yet again that the EU can rise above political challenges, and I am confident that this significant accomplishment will act as an enabler for progress of other files in the asylum and migration reform portfolio.”
The EUAA begins its work with a 2022 budget of EUR 172 million, an unprecedented eight operations (in Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Spain) supporting asylum and reception authorities in Member States with almost 2,000 personnel, and 500 staff mostly based in the agency’s headquarters in Malta, as well as in offices in Athens, Brussels, Rome, Nicosia, Madrid and Warsaw.
Webbsida: https://www.euaa.europa.eu/