# C_2023278EN.01000201.xml

| 7.8.2023 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | C 278/2 |
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7.8.2023

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 278/2

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Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 22 June 2023 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats Utrecht — Netherlands) — X v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid

(Case C-459/20, (1) Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Thai mother of a Dutch minor))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Citizenship of the Union - Article 20 TFEU - Right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States - Decision of a Member State refusing residence to a third-country national parent of a minor child, who has the nationality of that Member State - Child living outside the territory of the European Union and never having resided in its territory)

(2023/C 278/02)

Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats Utrecht

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: X

Defendant: Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid

Operative part of the judgment

| 1. | Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a situation in which a minor child, a Union citizen, who has the nationality of a Member State and who, since birth, has lived outside the territory of that Member State and has never resided in the territory of the European Union, does not preclude one of his or her parents, who is a third-country national, upon whom that child is dependent, from benefiting from the derived right of residence under that article, provided that it is established that that child will enter and reside in the territory of that Member State of which he or she has the nationality together with that parent. |
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1.

Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a situation in which a minor child, a Union citizen, who has the nationality of a Member State and who, since birth, has lived outside the territory of that Member State and has never resided in the territory of the European Union, does not preclude one of his or her parents, who is a third-country national, upon whom that child is dependent, from benefiting from the derived right of residence under that article, provided that it is established that that child will enter and reside in the territory of that Member State of which he or she has the nationality together with that parent.

| 2. | Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a Member State seised of an application for a derived right of residence by a third-country national upon whom a minor child, who is a citizen of the European Union and who has the nationality of that Member State, is dependent, and that child has lived since birth in that third country without ever having resided in the territory of the European Union, may not reject that application on the ground that moving to that Member State — which the exercise by that child of his or her rights as a Union citizen presupposes — is not in the real or plausible interests of that child. |
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2.

Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a Member State seised of an application for a derived right of residence by a third-country national upon whom a minor child, who is a citizen of the European Union and who has the nationality of that Member State, is dependent, and that child has lived since birth in that third country without ever having resided in the territory of the European Union, may not reject that application on the ground that moving to that Member State — which the exercise by that child of his or her rights as a Union citizen presupposes — is not in the real or plausible interests of that child.

| 3. | Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that, for the purposes of assessing whether a minor child, who is a European Union citizen, is dependent on his or her third-country national parent, the Member State concerned is required to take into account all the relevant circumstances, without it being regarded as decisive either that the third-country national parent has not always assumed day-to-day care of that child but now has sole care of that child, or that the other parent, who is a Union citizen, could assume the actual day-to-day care of that child. |
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3.

Article 20 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that, for the purposes of assessing whether a minor child, who is a European Union citizen, is dependent on his or her third-country national parent, the Member State concerned is required to take into account all the relevant circumstances, without it being regarded as decisive either that the third-country national parent has not always assumed day-to-day care of that child but now has sole care of that child, or that the other parent, who is a Union citizen, could assume the actual day-to-day care of that child.

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(1)  OJ C 443, 21.12.2020.

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