Asylum agency to open next month

The seat of the EU’s first agency in Malta – the European Asylum Support Office – will be inaugurated by European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on June 19. Details of the inauguration were given yesterday...

The seat of the EU’s first agency in Malta – the European Asylum Support Office – will be inaugurated by European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on June 19.

Details of the inauguration were given yesterday by Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana after the official signing of the “seat agreement” between Malta and the EASO, which specifies the conditions related to the premises of the new agency and its staff.

EASO will be providing its services from a new building in the Grand Harbour, adjacent to the offices of the maritime directorate of Transport Malta. The agency recently issued an international call to recruit its first officials. It is estimated that a total of 60 officers will be recruited in the first three years of operations.

The aim of the EASO is to strengthen practical cooperation among member states on asylum and to improve the implementation of the Common European Asylum System in the EU.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.