Judge Boštjan Zalar, who is the Project Reporter, participated in a workshop on ‘Judical Interactions on Control of Return and Asylum Detention’ and answered the question whether there is a crisis of the rule of law in the European Union with yes. According to Judge Zalar, there is a huge discrepancy between European Law and national practices. For this reason, “better organisation and improved provision of training services for judges, where non-judges can participate to a limited extent” could be a solution.

Judge Zalar continued and presented the ELI project 'Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants and the Rule of Law'. “The aim of the ELI project is for a judge to be able to find in the respective check-list all relevant information on EU law and Strasbourg case-law standards for every major aspect of judicial control of detention,” he explained. Furthermore, Judge Zalar warned that “ad hoc and collaborative networks will not be enough. […] We need much more support in EU law in terms of a defined institutional structure […].” He hereby welcomed the envisaged regulation on the establishment of an Asylum Agency.  

The Conference was organised in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission in Belgium.  

More information on the Odysseus Annual Conference can be found here. 

A webstream of the panel in which Judge Zalar participated is available here and his presentation paper can be found here.