Request for a preliminary ruling from the Tribunal de première instance de Liège (Belgium) lodged on 28 January 2022 – PL v État belge

(Case C-56/22)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Tribunal de première instance de Liège

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: PL

Defendant: État belge

Question referred

Does EU law, essentially the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Directive 2008/115/EC, ¹ apply to a practice of a Member State allowing it to regularise in situ a foreign national staying there illegally? If it does, must Articles 5, 6 and 13 of Directive 2008/115/EC, read in accordance with [recitals 6 and 24] thereof, and Articles 1, 7, 14, 20, 21, 24 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union be interpreted as meaning that, where a Member State is considering granting an autonomous residence permit or other authorisation offering a right to stay for compassionate, humanitarian or other reasons to a third-country national staying illegally on its territory, it is entitled to: (i) require that national, first of all, to prove that it is impossible to make his or her application in his or her country of origin; and (ii) not set out in its legislation the, a fortiori objective, conditions and criteria for proving those compassionate, humanitarian or other reasons (whether as far as admissibility is concerned, by requiring that exceptional circumstances be demonstrated but not defining them, or as far as substance is concerned, by failing to lay down any objective criteria for defining the, inter alia humanitarian, reasons justifying a residence authorisation), thereby rendering the response to such an application unpredictable, or even arbitrary? If it is permissible for those criteria not to be laid down by legislation, in the event of a refusal, is the right to an effective remedy not undermined by the fact that the only remedy provided is based on strict legality, excluding any considerations of appropriateness?

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¹     Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (OJ 2008 L 348, p. 98).