The ‘EASO Practical Guide: Personal Interview’ has been published within the EASO Practical Guides Series and is currently available in [EN][ES][IT][DE][FR][NL][CS][BG][EL][ET][HR][HU][LT][LV][MT][PL][SK][SL].  This Guide is the first practical tool developed under the EASO Quality Matrix process.  The Practical Guide is intended to support the case officers in their daily work. With practical checklists and brief guidance, it accompanies them through the stages of preparation for the interview, opening the interview, providing the necessary information, conducting the interview, including guidance regarding the substance which needs to be explored, as well as necessary post-interview actions. The interactivity of the tool allows the user to go directly, by using the hyperlinks, to the parts of the guidance that are of interest and to consult further relevant legislation and case law. In specific places, the tool leaves space for adding information regarding the national context, allowing tailoring the Practical Guide as one-stop guidance for any case officer across the European Union and beyond.

While the Practical Guide does replace the core and advanced EASO training in Interview Techniques, Interviewing Vulnerable Persons and Interviewing Children, it has been developed in line with the structured interview method they are based on. EASO hopes that the Guide will be useful for case officers as a practical tool to assist them in one of their most important tasks, conducting a good quality personal interview, and that it will be found helpful as a tool for self-evaluation as well as quality supervision.

EASO would wish to thank the national experts who developed the Practical Guide for their work and valuable expertise; all Member States which contributed to it within the final consultation process; as well as the Reference Group, including the European Commission, UNHCR and ECRE, which provided input throughout the drafting process.