Netherlands: Council of State rules on the use of a Eurodac result issued by another EU Member State

Date: 
Friday, September 23, 2016

On 1 September 2016, the Council of State ruled on the use of information – an Eurodac result – provided by other Member States. In the present case, the State Secretary had declared an asylum application inadmissible as the asylum seeker already enjoyed international protection in Greece.

The decision was based on the 2014 case law (201304293/1/V4 and 201304291/1/V4) stipulating that the State Secretary can rely on information originating from another EU Member State, such as a Eurodac result. However, the time elapsed since the search in the Eurodac system should be minimal and the information relied upon needs to specify the residence rights upon return. If a result from the Eurodac search is not recent enough or lacks relevant information on the residence rights, the State Secretary is required to investigate whether the applicant is still in possession of a valid residence permit or any other permission to reside issued by the Member State in question.
 
Given that the search in Eurodac dates back to 24 September 2015, the information extracted from it is not sufficiently recent for the case on 10 May 2016. Moreover, the Eurodac result does not specify for which period international protection in Greece was granted. The State Secretary has, without enquiring further information on reception in Greece, unjustifiably presumed that the applicant would be granted a residence permit or any other form of permission to stay upon return to Greece. The appeal of the applicant is therefore deemed admissible. 


This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.

                                                     

 

Keywords: 
Inadmissible application
Material reception conditions
Reception conditions
Residence document