Interview with François Bienfait

François Bienfait packed his suitcases for Malta in November last year. François Bienfait is the Head of Centre for Training, Quality and Expertise at EASO. Read the interesting interview about his expectations about the future of EAC and why he prefers Stuffat Tal-Fenek (Maltese rabbit) instead of French fries...

Pick and Choose

Valletta – Brussels:

After a big part of my life in Brussels, this time the moment has come for Valletta (which I knew and appreciated already quite well as my daughter is also Maltese…)

Wine – Beer:

Wine without any discussion (for me the easiest of your questions to decide). I'm really not a beer guy. But wine, in particular fresh white (like a good Chardonnay) will do.

Rock music – Pop music:

My brother would certainly choose Rock, I'd rather Pop. But the kind of atmosphere I particularly enjoy is rather the Afro-Latino style (R&B, salsa music, even tango etc.). Here in Malta they can provide the Trace Tropical channel, this is perfect for me. One more channel for the news (Euronews of course), another one for the culture (Arte or the French TV5 Monde), and the last one for sport and it's fine for me ;-)

Fish – Meat:

Generally rather meat, but as I will now be living close to the sea, I probably should reconsider…

Maltese rabbit stew - French fries:

If you had mentioned Belgian fries, I would certainly have chosen them. But in this case, rather Maltese Rabbit…

Reading EAC Trainer Manual – Going to the cinema:

This question is tricky… Let's say that when I'm tired of reading the EAC trainer manual, I go to the cinema… (to see for instance The Artist, a film that I highly recommend you)

How do you prepare yourself for the move to Malta?

In fact I am already living in Malta, since the 30th of November. But I will move to an apartment from 1st January. Until now I'm living in a small hotel, close to the seafront in Sliema. It has its advantages, as to see the sea every day when I go to work (what was not the case for me in Brussels…;-) But I will be happy to have a more personal place, also for the meals, as it is tiring to go about every day to restaurants…

What are you looking forward to the most with your new commitment?

I feel very enthusiastic with the idea of being part of this very new EASO agency, which aims to give maximum support to the national Asylum administrations. It is quite exciting to be directly involved with a completely new international team in such an important challenge as helping the CEAS (Common European Asylum System) become a reality, technically for 2012 (the soonest possible the best). With a new agency of 60 (then later 80) persons, we'll need to be very well organized to be super-efficient, but I really believe that we will do it happen.

More in particular, with the Centre for Training, Quality and Expertise, our tasks mainly enter in the field of the permanent support (versus the emergency support to be delivered by the Centre for operations). It is a basic and obvious idea that everything (like for children…) starts with a good education and training. The day that all asylum case officers in Europe will have benefited from the same training (as EAC), the objective of getting closer to a consistent Asylum System in Europe will become more real. Today there are still too big differences in the way the EU countries deal with the asylum applications (both for the procedural aspect and for the outcome of the decisions). The EAC will also allow the EU Member States to get for their staff a very high quality Training System including the updates related with the last developments of the EU Law (and Case Law) on Asylum. In specific emergency situations, our Training Centre will also contribute to the operational support, like it will already be the case very soon for the Action Plan in Greece.

What do you consider as your most important key missions?

That will be to make the Centre for Training, Quality and Expertise efficient in the shortest time possible, in order:

• to be able to continue delivering the EAC material and EAC System to its 'clients' as positively as it was the case at the time when EAC was still a GDISC project mainly managed from the SMB. I profit to thank and congratulate the SMB Team for the wonderful work they have initiated and realized since the beginning of the EAC adventure in 2006. In my opinion, Göran Larsson (the real founder of the EAC concept) and André Nilén (the last EAC Project Manager) have particularly made a wonderful work, the same with the TIU. It is thanks to them all that EASO can inherit of such a good Training tool and system, which was at some EASO Management Board meetings qualified as the flag ship of EASO…
• to develop even further the EAC : quality improvement –including update policy- of the existing modules; conception of new modules where there are real needs; development of a very professional EAC Experts Pool, including Trainers, Content and Didactic Experts, etc.
• to make sure that the implementation of EAC in the national Asylum Administrations speeds up, in particular in the countries were the process has not really started yet.

But the action of the Centre will not be limited to EAC. Other kind of trainings should be developed. And much work will need to be done also on the field of Quality. There also we inherit of the very good work already performed through several Quality Initiatives projects initiated by the UNHCR together with a number of National Asylum Administrations. Projects like Further Developing the Quality (FDQ), whose very interesting conclusions were presented last September in a closing conference in Brussels.

How do you visualise the EAC training within a couple of years from now?

In a couple of years, I can imagine that the EAC training will not be that different from what it is now. There will probably be some more modules (on the CEAS; on reception conditions, on resettlement, on gender issues); and then the EAC will also be developed for different publics, first of all for the judges but also probably for the interpreters (who are both, at different levels, key actors for a qualitative Asylum system). But I believe that the biggest evolution in two years will be the implementation of the EAC in the National Asylum Administrations.

If I make a projection in a longer term, I can imagine that the EAC will be more and more used as a capacity building tool for the External dimension of the Asylum policy, so as making part of the global approach on Immigration and Asylum. Some pilot experiences with EAC outside Europe have already taken place (for instance in Burundi), other experiences should happen in a not too far future (in line with the spirit of the Söderköping Process, also initiated by the SMB, towards the East of Europe and further East). It will probably start with the translation of some EAC modules into Russian. When you know that the US Immigration and Asylum authority is also interested in the EAC tool, and that with a Spanish translated version of the EAC modules we could reach about all Latin American countries, I believe that one day we'll need to rename the EAC into WAC (World Asylum Curriculum ;-). But that is not for tomorrow as for the moment, because of necessary priorities to be made at the starting time of a new organization and because of already existing restrictions on the EASO budget, the external dimension is not integrated as such in the 2012 EASO work programme. And for the next years, we will see…

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