On Thursday 5 September, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) presented, in the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee, the progress made in the governance of the agency as part of the action plan adopted in spring 2018, a statement said.
The plan included a series of actions to strengthen the Agency's internal governance, rebuild internal capacity and restore trust. "In just over a year, 48 of the 61 actions (79%) of the Plan have been completed".
The flagship measure consists of the establishment of a more robust internal control system and a recruitment campaign to carry out all the tasks of the agency, which, as a reminder, supports the Member States in asylum application procedures and will be called upon more and more to go into the field. EASO now has 292 employees and is expected to have 500 by the end of 2020.
However, the current limits of the mandate of the Agency - which is also being reformed and will become a true European Asylum Agency - are "very clear" in relation to Member States' requests, said Director General Nina Gregori. Hence the need to successfully reform of the Asylum Package, which includes the revision of EASO's competences, as soon as possible. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)