officials. Accordingly, the judicial review carried out by lower judges of decisions taken by higher judges was not deemed contrary to the principle of judicial independence and impartiality.349 The Appeals Authority consisted of 21 Independent Appeals Committees,350 which were reduced to 20 following JMD 109288/30.04.2024 (Gazette B’ 2602/01.05.2024). EUAA (former EASO) role at second instance Since 2017, the law foresees that “in case of a large number of appeals”, the Appeals Committees might be assisted by “rapporteurs” provided by EASO (now EUAA).351 These rapporteurs have access to the files and are entrusted with drafting a detailed and in-depth report, that will contain a record and statement of the facts of the case along with the main claims of the appellant, as well as a matching of said claims (αντιστοίχιση ισχυρισμών) with the country of origin information that will be presented before the competent Committee in order to decide.352 Both the IPA and the Asylum Code maintain the same tasks for “rapporteurs” provided by EASO.353 However, according to the IPA, this is not only foreseen “in case of a large number of appeals”. Articles 95(4) IPA and 100 (4) Asylum Code provides that each member of the Appeals Committee may be assisted by “rapporteurs” provided by EASO. As of 31 December 2021, 20 Rapporteurs were assisting the Appeals Committees members pursuant to Art. 95(4) IPA.354 Since they are seconded to the individual Committees, these Rapporteurs are not supervised or line-managed by EASO/EUAA.355 Data on the number of Rapporteurs regarding 2023 has since not been provided by the MoMA, even though GCR has requested it on a yearly basis. Instead, following the latest such request sent by GCR in January 2024, the MoMA replied by referring GCR to the Ministry’s website “and in particular at the link https://migration.gov.gr/statistika/ [where] the monthly newsletters are published, alongside relevant annexes, which include summary and detailed statistical data on the work of the First Reception Service, the Asylum Service and the Appeals Authority […]”356. Yet a closer look at the public sources referred by the MoMA highlights that the specific data is not available. Number of appeals and recognition rates at second instance A total of 10,973 appeals were lodged against Asylum Service decisions throughout Greece in 2023, of which 10,013 on the mainland and 960 on the islands.357 The Independent Appeals Committees handed down a total of 13,032 decisions in 2023 (includes discontinuation, withdrawals, archived cases):358 The table below includes decisions on both admissibility and merits, given no separate breakdown is provided with respect to positive appeals decisions. Decisions of other type (e.g. discontinuation, withdrawals, archived cases) are not included in the table. 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 Council of State (Plenary), Decisions 1580/2021 and 1581/2021, 8 October 2021, para. 14. JMD 27290/2020, Gov. Gazette B’4896/6-11-2020. Article 62(6) L 4375/2016, as inserted by Article 101(2) L 4461/2017. Article 62(6) L 4375/2016, Article 95(5) IPA. Article 62(6) L 4375/2016, Article 95(5) IPA, Article 100(5) Asylum Code. Information provided by the Appeals Authority, 11 March 2022. ECRE, The role of EASO operations in national asylum systems, November 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2VNULrd, p. 18 MoMA, Analysis and Studies Office, Reply to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2023 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, received on 14 February 2024 (protocol number: 55259). MoMA, Statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: December 2023 - International Protection | Appendix A, available at: https://tinyurl.com/wn2kukaa, table 10a. Ibid, table 9b. 78