Case C‑394/12

Shamso Abdullahi

v

Bundesasylamt

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Asylgerichtshof)

(Request for a preliminary ruling — Common European Asylum System — Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 — Determination of the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application — Review of compliance with the criteria for determining responsibility for examining the asylum application — Scope of judicial review)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber), 10 December 2013

Border controls, asylum and immigration — Asylum policy — Criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application — Regulation No 343/2003 — Method of interpretation — Judicial review — Scope — Agreement by the Member State of first entry to take charge of the applicant for asylum challenged by that applicant — Conditions — Systemic deficiencies in the asylum procedure and in the conditions for the reception of applicants for asylum in a Member State — Real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment

(Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 4; Council Regulation No 343/2003, Arts 10(1) and 19(2))

Article 19(2) of Regulation No 343/2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national must be interpreted as meaning that, in circumstances where a Member State has agreed to take charge of an applicant for asylum on the basis of the criterion laid down in Article 10(1) of that regulation — namely, as the Member State of the first entry of the applicant for asylum into the European Union — the only way in which the applicant for asylum can call into question the choice of that criterion is by pleading systemic deficiencies in the asylum procedure and in the conditions for the reception of applicants for asylum in that Member State, which provide substantial grounds for believing that the applicant for asylum would face a real risk of being subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

As regards the scope of the appeal provided for in Article 19(2) of Regulation No 343/2003, that regulation must be construed not only in the light of the wording of its provisions, but also in the light of its general scheme, its objectives and its context, in particular its evolution in connection with the system of which it forms part.

(see paras 51, 62, operative part)