There will be four workshops in Europe this year.  

Haarlem Seminar.

This will be held in Haarlem, Netherlands on 14 September, 2009, in cooperation with the Courts of Haarlem and Amsterdam on the subject: The extent of the judicial review in asylum cases. Presentations from Australia, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. About 35 participants to attend.

Dublin Seminar for African Chapter.

This will be held at Trinity college, Dublin on September 17-18, 2009. Participants are coming from South Africa, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The agenda has not been finalised but the final draft should be completed by the end of this month.

 Budapest Workshop .

This will take place on October 8-9, 2009. It is the creation of our colleague Judit Pápai from the Budapest Municipal Court. The seminar is jointly organised with UNHCR Budapest Office and is for the benefit of judges from south eastern Europe.  About 35 judges are expected to attend.

Berlin Workshop.

This event will take place on 19-20 October 2009 and is the third of a most successful series of seminars specialising on the development of European law as reflected in the two recent Directives.

We are conscious of the lack of participation from colleagues from Italy, Greece and from Spain. I was recently given an opportunity to meet the President of Audienca Nacional. The meeting was organised by UNHCR in Madrid. The President of the Administrative Chamber and ten of his fifteen colleagues were present. Prospects would appear to be promising once some formalities can be disposed of. Language skills may be a problem, but given a little imagination this can be overcome.

A  number of UNHCR offices in Europe are in the process of regrading and much of the international liaison is being transferred to a number of regional offices, such as Brussels and Budapest.

Eamonn Cahill.