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Country Information in Asylum Procedures Quality as a Legal Requirement in the EUThe High Court further criticised the unjustified selectivity in referring to COI inIE-22:In the case before this Court also I find that the Commissioner was selective in the part of theparagraph he chose to quote in support of his decision, omitting the remainder which greatlymodified the selected passage. Moreover, he engaged in no rational analysis of the conflict andgave no reasons to justify his preferment of one view over another on the basis of that analysis.VIII.2 Up-to-date InformationVIII.2.1 LegislationArticle 8 (2) (b) of the Procedures Directive envisages another concrete standard relevantto the accuracy of COI research, namely that of currency:2. Member States shall ensure that decisions by the determining authority on applicationsfor asylum are taken after an appropriate examination. To that end, Member States shallensure that:[...](b) precise and up-to-date information is obtained from various sources, such as theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as to the generalsituation prevailing in the countries of origin of applicants for asylum and, wherenecessary, in countries through which they have transited, and that such informationis made available to the personnel responsible for examining applications and takingdecisions;While this provision does not elaborate what “up-to-date” means, Article 4 (3) (a) ofthe Qualification Directive provides more guidance on this requirement:3. The assessment of an application for international protection is to be carried out on anindividual basis and includes taking into account:(a) all relevant facts as they relate to the country of origin at the time of taking adecision on the application; including laws and regulations of the country of originand the manner in which they are applied;Reading in conjunction the above two provisions, it can be deduced that the COIused in asylum procedures should relate to a period as close as possible to the time oftaking a decision (regardless of the fact that it is a first- or upper-instance, administrativeor judicial decision). From a COI professional’s viewpoint, there may be exceptions fromthe “as up-to-date as possible” rule. When certain events referred to by the asylum-seekerdid not occur prior to her/his flight, but for example years before, COI dating fromthe given period – i.e. otherwise completely outdated – will still be accurate. Anotherexception may be the case of cultural or historical information (for example on weddingrites in an African tribe or the calendar used in different Islamic countries), which oftenremains unaltered in time. In such cases, the norm of currency may not be interpretedin a very strict manner.The Austrian Asylum Act goes beyond the general requirement set by the directivesand sets a strict rule in connection with its Country Documentation, aiming at the56