A Member State of the European Union is not obliged to automatically recognise refugee status granted in another Member State, ruled the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) in a judgment handed down on Tuesday 18 June (case C-753/22).
In Germany, a Syrian national who had been granted refugee status in Greece challenged the German authorities’ refusal to recognise her status even though they had granted her subsidiary protection, arguing that the plaintiff risked inhuman or degrading treatment if she returned to Greece.
In its judgment, the CJEU notes that as EU law currently stands (regulation 604/2013), Member States are not obliged to automatically recognise decisions granting refugee status adopted by another Member State, but they may do so.
In these circumstances, where the competent authority cannot reject as inadmissible an application for international protection already granted to the applicant in another EU country, it must carry out a new, complete and up-to-date individual examination of the conditions for granting refugee status. Having to take into account the elements that support the other Member State’s decision, it must initiate an exchange of information with the authority that granted refugee status.
In the end, if the applicant meets the conditions to be considered a refugee, the authority must grant this status without having any discretionary power.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/cpx (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)