The Working Group "Asylum and Immigration" held its annual seminar on 18 and 19 September 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. The event was kindly hosted by the Belgian Conseil du contentieux des étrangers / Raad voor Vreemdelingenbetwistingen.

The RVV-CCE is a federal administrative court specialised into asylum and immigration cases.

The seminar included presentations and high-level discussions on:

- the "safe third country" concept;

- the recent jurisprudence of the ECtHR and the CJEU;

- Syria's transition and cessation of international protection;

- nationality law under European influence.

Please find the agenda here:

//aeaj.org/wfcms//uploads/AEAJ_Agenda_Brussels_18-19_09_2025.pdf 

Highlights of the first day included exchanges with Judge of the ECtHR Gilberto Felici and Advocate General Laila Medina on recent jurisprudence of the two European Courts on matters related to asylum and migration. Our colleagues Margot Stoové (Netherlands) and Holger Böhmann (Germany) shared their national expertise as discussants.

Friday morning, AEAJ participants had an interactive lively and open exchange with Mr. Michael Shotter, director for Migration and Asylum at the EU Commission (DG Home). The discussants were our colleagues Fani Sotiriadou (Greece) and António Mendes Oliveira (Portugal), who emphasized on the specific challenges for their respective countries.

The seminar gathered 47 European participants and 19 Belgian colleagues (judges and attachés).