The Committee of Ministers has adopted Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The protocol provides for States’ highest courts to obtain opinions on questions of principle regarding the interpretation and/or application of rights and freedom defined in the Convention and its protocols. The goal of the new protocol is to resolve these questions before they reach Strasbourg, saving Court resources and enabling speedier resolution of cases at the national level. The protocol will enter into force once 10 parties to the Convention have ratified it.
The applicant is a Belarusian national who was arrested in Moscow in May 2011 following an international arrest warrant from Belarus and placed in detention. His detention was extended on several occasions. Although the Russian authorities approved his extradition, it did not take place because the ECtHR issued an interim measure preventing it. The applicant had also requested asylum shortly after his detention. His claim was at first dismissed.
On 19 December COREPER reached a partial general approach on the draft Regulation establishing the Asylum and Migration Fund. This will constitute the basis for the upcoming negotiations with the European Parliament in the context of the ordinary legislative procedure.
During its meeting on 7 and 8 March, the Justice and Home Affairs Council heard a presentation by the European Commission on the Smart Borders Package, which the Commission had tabled last week. It was also updated on the state of play of the asylum procedures directive and the Eurodac regulation. Issues that remain to be solved in relation to these two legislative proposals concern special procedures for unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and access to Eurodac data by law enforcement authorities.
The Corte Suprema di Cassazione (second grade of appeal only on matters of law) ruled against a decision of the Court of Appeal that overturned the decision of the first instance court (Tribunale) which granted humanitarian protection status to a Tunisian national on grounds of the persecution he would have suffered being gay and Christian (he did not get asylum or subsidiary protection due to his criminal activities).
Eurostat published statistics on asylum decisions by the EU Member States in 2012. The data shows Member States granted protection to more than 100,000 asylum seekers. The highest numbers of grants of protection came from Germany (22,000), Sweden (15,300), the UK (14,600) and France (14,300). Citizens of Syria constituted the largest group of beneficiaries (18%), followed by Afghanistan (13%) and Somalia (8%). A total of 407,300 decisions were made: 274,500 were first instance decisions and 132,800 were appeals.
The applicant is an Algerian national who lives in Sofia. He entered Bulgaria illegally in January 2004 and presented an asylum claim, which was rejected by the asylum authority and by an administrative court. After his temporary residence permit as asylum seeker had expired, his removal was ordered. However, as he did not have any valid travel documents and lacked the means to return to his country of origin, he was placed in a temporary detention centre. He refused to meet representatives of the Algerian Embassy because he feared reprisals.
The official version of a reference by Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Austria) lodged on 20th June 2013 has been published as follows:
Is Article 4(5) of Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification 1 to be interpreted as precluding a provision under which spouses and registered partners must already have reached the age of 21 years at the time at which the application is submitted in order to be considered to be entitled to join other family members?
In December 2012, further negotiations took place on the asylum procedures directive. The Cyprus Presidency presented then compromise proposals for the JHA Counsellors meeting and for the trilogue which took place on December, 17 with the European Commission and the Parliament.
The text of the proposals for the JHA Counsellors meeting can be read here.
