Pursuant to its mandate to provide high-quality training to members of courts and tribunals with full respect for judicial independence, EASO continued to facilitate professional development workshops in the first months of 2020.

On 3 and 4 March 2020, 13 members of courts and tribunals from nine Member States participated in a professional development workshop on qualification for international protection, led by a judicial trainer from Ireland. Following the corresponding EASO judicial analysis, the workshop provided a thorough analysis of the EU standards for the qualification of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection. The participants and the judicial trainer actively engaged in discussions around case studies and other practical exercises.

Similarly, on 5 and 6 March 2020, 13 members of courts and tribunals from 7 EU Member States attended a pilot professional development workshop on exclusion from international protection hosted by EASO. By participating in a moot court exercise, the participants exchanged practices and gained a practical insight into dealing with cases concerning exclusion clauses. Two judicial trainers from Ireland and the Netherlands facilitated the workshop, based on the corresponding judicial analysis from the EASO Professional Development Series. This judicial analysis has been recently updated, notably with recent jurisprudence from CJEU, ECtHR and national courts in the field of exclusion.

The second edition of this judicial analysis will be available soon in our Courts and Tribunals webpage.

In the words of one judge who was asked whether the pilot workshop on exclusion will have a positive impact on their professional work: ‘Yes. Absolutely, I have already pinpointed a few points I will be able to put into practice already next week!’