Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2012:10
Date: 2012-01-12
Language of the case: Swedish
Subject matter: Asylum policy;Area of freedom, security and justice
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Sweden

Summary of the Judgment 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 — Scope (Council Regulation No 343/2003, Art. 2(c)) 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 the effect of withdrawing an application for asylum within the terms of Article 2(c) of that regulation, which is done before the Member State responsible for examining that application has agreed to take charge of the applicant, is that that regulation can no longer be applicable. In such a case, it is for the Member State within whose territory the application was lodged to take the decisions required as a result of that withdrawal and, in particular, to discontinue the examination of the application, with a record of the information relating to it being placed in the applicant’s file. Where the applicant withdraws his single asylum application before the requested Member State has agreed to take charge of him, the principal objective of Regulation No 343/2003, namely, the identification of the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application in order to guarantee effective access to an appraisal of the refugee status of the applicant, can no longer be attained. (see paras 42, 49, operative part)