 Good afternoon, everybody. And I'm pleased to welcome you to this IIEA webinar towards a common European asylum system. We're delighted to be joined today by Nina Grigori, Executive Director of the EU Agency for Asylum. And thank you so much for your time today, Nina. You all will be able to join in the discussion during the questions and answers which you can find on the Zoom. And you should feel free to send in questions during the presentation. I'd like you to maybe give your name and if possible, any affiliation that you might have. I also will remind you that today's question presentation and questions and answers are on the record. And you are free to join our discussions on Twitter using the handle at IIEA. I'd now like to formally introduce Ms. Nina Grigori. Ms. Grigori has been actively involved in the development and work of the EUAA since its beginning. She was a member of the Agency's Management Board from 2015, and then in 2019 she took up her role as Executive Director. She's previously worked at the Ministry of the Interior in the Republic of Slovenia for over 20 years, occupying the Senior Management Post of Director General for over a decade, responsible for asylum, migration, integration and internal administrative affairs. Ms. Grigori has also served as a National Delegate in the Expert Working Group Migration at the OECD and as a member of the Advisory Board of International Center for Migration Policy Development. So you will see from her CV that she is very, very experienced and a very good person to have in charge of this agency, which of course, as you know, is based in Malta. Our discussions today will look at the development of the EU's common asylum system, which has been undergoing for two decades back when in the late 90s when I was Minister. We were dealing with this issue as well. So it is an area that will continue to exercise us at a policy level. The new pact on migration asylum was presented in 2020 to, as it were, jump start discussion of the reform of the CEAS and to build a comprehensive migration and asylum system. So Nina Grigori is going to spell out for us paint a picture of developments and outline where policy stands at the moment where countries are working together. And of course it's a very relevant moment because of the geopolitical developments that has led to novel approaches. So I now would ask Nina Grigori to address the meeting and after which we will then have questions and answers so Miss Grigori thank you. So, thank you very much, Nora. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is really a great pleasure for me to be with you, virtually, of course, today for this discussion and I'm really thankful to the international. International European Affairs here in Dublin for this in kind invitation. I will begin with a look at where we are coming from in development when it comes to European unions common asylum system and the innovations in visiting the new pact on migration and asylum. And then try to turn to the actual implementation of the legislation of to the work of our asylum agency and the novelties that our new mandate as both about. And I will try to conclude with a brief, brief look into the future. That's of course always difficult, but to the extent that this is possible. I will start with common European asylum system for more than 20 years EU institutions and new member states have been working to create implemented also improve of course the legislative framework on migration and asylum. So it, everything started back in 1999. So when the European Council committed to establish a common European asylum system. The commitments made in the so called temporary program, which goal was also to set up the then in the treaty of the functioning of the European Union itself. So the first phase of this common European asylum system so several legislative instruments adopted between 1999 and 2005, as Nora mentioned, which established directives with minimum standards on asylum procedures on reception and qualification for protection. Since then, of course, efforts have continued in order to develop the system to achieve a greater level of convergence, and also uniformity and unity among the member states. So this minimum standards established in the first phase, were replaced then by common asylum and reception standards, while the W regulation and Eurodeck were also strengthened in the second phase of common European asylum legislation, which was completed back in 2013. However, the national implementation of asylum procedures and also reception conditions, continued to vary from member states to members say state quite significantly. There are various reasons for this, but let me pick on two broad ones. The first one is that the directives of the EU legislation and legislative instruments allow and they still out of this today of course, for differences in how member states transpose them into the national legislation. And the second point is that the legislation on its own, it's not, let's say sufficient enough to achieve convergence of course. This is also about implementation and how the legislation is actually applied in practice. So, and this brought together I would say points became very, I would say also painfully evident with the 2015 and 16 migration crisis, leading to the presentation in 2016 of several new proposals to reform our common European asylum system. As always, as always when it comes to a sensitive area like migration and asylum negotiations on those third generation proposals were not easy. Not least because of course most stunned into directly applicable regulations, but for some of the proposals not negotiations pretty much stalled for others, good progress was made, but they could not be finally adopted. So basically the third generation of test so common European asylum system, state on the table in Brussels, because the number of member states as well as European Parliament insisted on a package approach. So they've said, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. So in order to address the situation. Two years ago, on the 23rd of September 2020, the new commission presented a new pact on migration and asylum. A complete in a way complimenting, and to some extent also replacing the 2016 proposals that have never been adopted. So, in this respect, we are still in the negotiation process of the common European asylum system as it should be, or as it was presented by the Commission in 2020. So let's take a look at this new pact. And let's take a look at the key innovations let's say that were introduced by the new pact on migration and asylum. So the new pact aims to establish a comprehensive common framework to achieve more coherence and convergence in the asylum procedures. So, it tries to make procedures more effective, while trying to strike in a way a fair balance between solidarity and responsibility. And we see this for example in the proposal to establish a screening procedure, which will also include identification and security checks of migrants, but also health and vulnerability checks. So this proposal covers a lot of what Member States already do in practice, but it aims also to achieve some uniformity in the checks of those migrants who are arriving to Europe or will arrive to Europe regularly at the external borders, and important part of that forward with this proposal was that this in fact, tried to as I said, uniform the, the actual implementation of the national legislation already. In June this year, the Council approved the negotiating mandate for this particular file, but now we're waiting, if the European Parliament will also support that. The second important act in the new proposal of the pact is so-called Eurideak proposal, or amended Eurideak proposal, which would render the system of interoperability with other large scale IT systems that are already existing in the field of justice and home affairs. It would finally give us a much clearer and really accurate picture of the number of asylum seekers in European Union, whether they receive protection, whether they were returned, whether they engage in a secondary assistance, and so on. So it does envisage also a separate category of persons brought ashore following search and rescue, and also this proposal in a way will try to fit in the registration of beneficiaries of temporary protections such as now, such as there are now millions. Further on, the Council negotiating mandate for the Eurideak regulation was approved also in June. And again, we're waiting now for the European Parliament to see how this will be accepted by them. Then there is the asylum procedure directive and the qualification directive that we already have, and they are of course valid, but in the new pact, those two were proposed to be replaced by regulations. So meaning that this would obviously make them directly applicable in the member states, and there will be no need for transposing them into the national legislation, but they're still pending as other proposals from the pact. And then I would say last but not least the asylum and migration management regulation proposal. This is the proposal which would replace the very known Dublin regulation. And this proposal also aims for a more coherent and holistic approach to asylum and migration with let's say a further better functioning system to identify the member states that are or should be responsible for for the asylum application, but also it includes a proposal for a solidarity mechanism to allow for better sharing of the burden or of the migrants among member states. As you might imagine, this is of course the most complex proposal that it is in the fact, and also it is very complex when it comes to negotiations in finding this compromise between responsibility on one hand and solidarity on the other hand. It's part of the effort to balance those two so responsibility and solidarity. In June. This year, a number of member states signed up to a political declaration on solidarity. So during the French presidency. The council approved the position on your that can screen proposal and 19 member states signed a declaration to provide with a voluntary solidarity mechanism in the form of relocation, or other types of contributions particular financial contributors to leave, relieve the burden of the member states in the Mediterranean. So this I would say new voluntary mechanism is is set in place, and we will see whether the countries will relocate asylum seekers particularly from Italy and from and from Greece. Negotiations on the new pact are now of course continuous and for the only proposal which has been really successful and it has been adopted from this new pact is in fact the regulation for our agency so the regulation for the establishment of the agency for asylum or EUAA as we are called now. This regulation entered into force in January this year. So with this new regulation, our predecessor European asylum support office so as a has become a new European asylum agency. And of course, with with this replacement, we were happy because we've received, let's say additional mandates that I will touch upon a bit later in the presentation. So the actual implementation of the legislative framework that we do have in Europe with so called common European asylum system is something that is of course crucial when it comes to the functionality of the system itself. And if we want to have a truly common application of common European asylum system across Europe. It needs to also function in practice, not only of course on paper. And this is where of course our asylum agency plays a key role. And I will give you a brief overview of our work so what do we really do to achieve to help the member states, achieve the implementation of tests and also, of course, in a way to help them come closer together when it comes to converges and decision making process in the asylum field. As it's core of our agency is a central expertise on asylum and deception, and we have developed in our 10 years of existence, guidance, common country of origin information country guidance data analysis, recommendations so practical tools operational standards and indicators, and so on. And all of those, let's say practical tools or tools that can be used by member states, help member states and their officials and their daily work to actually apply the legislation and to do so in a similar way across you. I will give you a few very, let's say practical examples. For example, we have a practical guide on how to actually do the personal interview with the asylum seeker. And because of covid create created a lot of challenges for member states in this respect we also issued recommendations on remote personal interviews. So in this respect, if countries are using that they do the procedures basically on on the same foot so equally. We have of course then practical tools related to access to the asylum procedure, guidance on the implementation of Dublin registrations and guidance on the examination on the asylum applications, guidance on reception on how to assess vulnerability of the asylum seekers how to basically contact interviews with children. There are a lot of tools that, in fact, are relevant when it comes to the procedural aspect of the details, and addressing the emerging needs of members since in view of the arrivals of so many people from Ukraine. We have recently also issued practical recommendations on emergency placement in private accommodations for persons displaced from Ukraine because we do believe that this is highly highly relevant. We have set up several thematic networks which then brings member states experts together around one table to discuss the practices and to try to seek the best way, or the best solutions that could potentially fit all the new tools generally broadens the scope for our development of such tools. So of course I'm happy that at the end of the day, we will be able as European Agency for asylum also monitor the operational a technical application of common European asylum system. So as European asylum support office, we didn't have the mandate to really monitor the implementation of the system, but now we will have that as European asylum agency. And this will be operational with with the from the first of January 2024 on. So now we are in the stage of preparation of the methodology for monitoring, and I think this is going to be highly relevant. So to bring countries closer together and to, in a way, while inviting to use our tools that we developed. We also have very strong training and professional development center, meaning that, of course, we are trying to, we are preparing the so called training modules for all the officials on in all the member states that are working in asylum procedures. So we have more than 30 training modules that are available, both that are so introductory and advanced ones catering for specializations in member states if this is this is of course their their needs. We have had around 64,000 participations in our training since 2012. And we've trained really a lot of of course case workers a lot of vulnerability experts a lot of expert that are working in the field of asylum in member states. And now turn to our operation support of course this is something that has really grown exponentially. When I became executive director of the agency back in 2019. Our agency was providing operational support to two three member states. And we were in present in Greece in Cyprus and Italy, but now in 2022 where operation is supporting 11 member states, and we're working with other member states with the view to supporting them too. So I'm really proud that I can say that we are now working. Not only just in frontline member states, but also in other member states of Europe that have asked us for support. So we are now operationally present in five Mediterranean countries so we are present in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, and also in Latvia, Lithuania in Belgium in Romania and Czech Republic. We are also now finalizing so the operation operational plan with Bulgaria in fact I will sign it today. My Bulgarian counterparts already signed them that and then with Slovenia and and Austria, we are doing now the analysis of our potential common work there too. So this operation support basically is based on the request from the member states so we cannot invite ourselves but we are invited. And then we do together the needs assessment, and then the operating plan is prepared with some with measures and those measures they, of course, are different in different member states, according to their needs. So we can cover information provisions registration asylum interviews, preparing opinions on the asylum applications with support also the judiciary so the second instance. We support reception authorities identification and also as I said refer off vulnerable people. With the situation in Ukraine so with the war in Ukraine. The Council invited us and give us the mandate to be also active when it comes to the delivery of the temporary protection and the implementation of the temporary protection directive for Ukrainians and we do of course also help member countries with this respect with, we help them to register people will have them with interpretation will have them with fighting accommodation for Ukrainians, and we are really active also also in this respect. So maybe just briefly to touch also to the position of Island, because I think that's quite interesting island had opted in to as a regulation so the previous regulation and island has fully participated in the ages is activities. I also need to say that we had the chair of our management board, which has been our Irish colleagues for many years. That was Dr David Costello and we've really cooperated with him. And he was very active in the agency before now with the UA regulation that is replacing of course the other regulation islands will need to in a way. And of course, if there would be a decision, political decision taken will need to in a way opt in in the new regulation and then I do hope that of course this good collaboration with with island will will continue. And I just can touch briefly and look into the future so as we have learned in recent years asylum and migration can only be managed in a comprehensive UI the approach for which there is a shared responsibility for sure. And of course, of course, building a functional your common asylum system is possible and I really do think it's also necessary. We should, in a way, strive to have short and efficient and effective asylum procedure. And of course, there is a big puzzle in the migration management in Europe, not, not only in the member states where, of course, also effectively return of those who are not eligible for asylum needs to be needs to be in place. So, I think that with the temporary protection directive implementation we see that Ukrainians, of course they under the legal basis of the TPD they have given the choice, or where, so that they can move freely around Europe, which of course, as I'm secret scans. And I think that this new approach on how really Ukrainian situation and millions of people fleeing and receiving let's say protection Europe will affect the current negotiations on the fact will be will be highly relevant. I think that this let's say new approach now will affect discussion or the future discussion on the fact. I think that the, the member states are willing to apply the same solidarity principles during the crisis. As they shown for Ukrainian, or, let's say the same approach will be also applied for other asylum seekers that are coming from different parts of the world. So should we then think in terms of maybe in the future of mutual recognition of the free movement for all the asylum seekers not only for Ukrainians. I mean there are so many I would say open questions that for sure will need to be addressed in the coming in the coming years. Unfortunately, of course I don't have a crystal ball and I cannot give you the answers to this questions because, as you know, not political organization and management migration in European Union is usually highly political. So, but I really do hope that Europe will drag from this extensive experience that we are facing now in helping Ukrainians, you know, with the positive insights and this should be, let's say, a positive game changer also for the future of our common European asylum system. Nora, with that I would give the floor back to you and thank you very much. I hope that was not too long.