In a judgment handed down on Thursday, 13 November (Case C-525/23), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the concept of ‘resources’ under the directive (2016/801) governing the conditions under which third-country nationals may reside in the European Union for the purposes of pursuing studies or volunteering has a broad scope and must be interpreted in a uniform manner.
In Hungary, a third-country national challenged the Supreme Court’s refusal to renew his residence permit so that he could volunteer there. The Hungarian court considered it necessary to establish whether the resources that would enable this individual to live in Hungary would constitute income or an asset and whether the funds would be available on a permanent and unrestricted basis as if they were his own money. According to the plaintiff, the resources in question were supposed to come from the third-country national’s uncle, a British citizen.
In its judgment, the Court of Justice takes the view that in accordance with European case law (Case C-491/13), a Member State cannot introduce conditions for a residence permit that would go beyond those laid down in the directive (see EUROPE 11152/16).
Moreover, according to the European court, the assessment of whether the resources are sufficient is based on a case-by-case examination that must be limited to verifying that the person concerned is able to use the resources in question. The European court believes that the introduction of other specific criteria—particularly any regarding the nature [or] origin [of the funds] or the manner in which the individual has them at his or her disposal—would constitute additional conditions, which are prohibited.
See the court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/jgi (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)