Α. Administrative procedures and problems the Ombudsman that in asylum interviews at the 1st degree conducted by EASO staff, no information of vulnerability was taken into consideration (serious injury, torture) recorded by the reception services. This issue however pertains to the implementation of uniform rules and criteria by the Asylum Service, which is responsible for the final decision, as well as the need to have a database that is common for the First Reception and Asylum Service, services that both belong to the Ministry of Migration Policy. The Ombudsman considers that any contribution by an EU service should meet the guarantees required by law (which is broadly a European asylum legislation), and the same substantial and transparent criteria for the verification of the need for international protection. The lack of a common database at the closing of 2016 raises questions regarding the adequate coordination of the services operating in the hotspots and the assurance of the rights of the parties involved (cases No. 218041, 218667/2016). Guarantees of safe third country The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March transfers to the asylum services at the 1st degree, and subsequently to the Appeals Authority, at the 2nd degree, the responsibility to decide about readmission to Turkey, as a safe third country for submission of asylum applications, both of the Syrian citizens, with rejection as inadmissible of the asylum applications in Greece, as well as of other third country nationals.104 In respect of the procedure, there is great pressure for the effective implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement regarding the fast processing at the 2nd degree of the asylum applications filed in the hotspots. This pressure is also expressed with a document dated 5.5.2016 of the head of the Directorate General for Migration of the European Commission to the Ministry of Interior at the time, regarding the safety guarantees provided by the legal framework of Turkey for the protection of the Syrian and third-country citizens as regards the Geneva Convention for Refugees. The Greek Ombudsman noted, as regards the case law of the European Court of Human rights (decision of 4.11.2015, Tarakhel versus Switzerland) that cases should be judged on an individual basis and specific and detailed guarantees should be provided for the conditions of reception/accommodation and the protection of the family unity in the third country (case No. 215182/2016). 104 See the critical comments of UNHCR http://www.refworld.org/cgi-in/ texis/vtx/rwmain?page=search&docid=56f3ee3f4&skip=0&query=legal%20 considerations&coi=GRC 34 However, 2000 cases from 3.4.2016 until 20.7.2016 had been submitted to the Appeals Committees of Presidential Decrees 114/2010 (more than 8000 cases pending from the past, with regard to which see below) and 1500 at the new Appeals Authority from 21.7.2016 to the end of September, until the reformation of the Authority with an amendment to Law 4399/2016 aiming at changing the composition of the Appeals Committees. Their composition by two thirds by active administrative judges by virtue of Article 86 of Law 4399/2016 caused an application for judicial review before the Supreme Administrative Court (Conseil d’Etat). Regarding the award of a refugee status, according to the Asylum Service figures provided, it is showing a decreasing trend from 2015 to 2016: Decisions on the substance at the 1st degree 6,977 in 2016 and 8,430 in 2015, out of which: Refugee status 1,501 in 2016 (22%) and 3,647 in 2015 (43%) Rejecting decisions 5,263 in 2016 (75%) and 4,435 in 2015 (53%) Subsidiary protection 213 in 2016 (3%) and 348 in 2015 (4%) Respectively, the decisions on the substance at the 1st degree from the islands in the period from April to 31.12.2016 indicate low recognition percentages and high inadmissibility percentages: 1,704 decisions of inadmissibility 148 recognition of refugee status 15 subsidiary protection The corresponding figures for decisions at the 2nd degree on the substance regarding appeals from the islands show an even greater opening of the gap: 533 rejections by the Committees of the Appeals Authority during the period 20.7 - 20.12.2016 and only 2 positive decisions during this period (91 positive decisions of the old Appeals Committees up to 20.7.2016 and 21 negative decisions). 4.4. Access to asylum means substantial conditions for the exercise of the right The substantial exercise of the right to access international protection requires on the one hand the timely provision of information to the new arrivals detained for return, deportation or readmission about the