Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2012:389
Date: 2012-06-27
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Asylum policy;Area of freedom, security and justice
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary – Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber), 6 November 2012 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 – Humanitarian clause – Person who has been granted asylum in one Member State and is dependent on the assistance of a member of his family who is an asylum seeker in another Member State – Responsibility for examining the asylum application reverting to the first Member State – Clause also covering persons having family ties with the asylum seeker (Council Regulation No 343/2003, Art. 15; Commission Regulation No 1560/2003, Art 11(4)) Article 15(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 person who has been granted asylum in one Member State is dependent, owing inter alia to a serious illness, on the assistance of a member of his family who is an asylum seeker but whose application is, in conformity with the criteria laid down in Chapter III of that Regulation, examined in another Member State, the Member State in which those persons reside becomes responsible for the examination of the asylum application. It is for that Member State to assume the obligations inherent in that responsibility and to inform the Member State previously responsible, even where that Member State did not make a request in that regard in accordance with the second sentence of Article 15(1) of that regulation. Article 15(2) of Regulation No 343/2003 is applicable in a situation of dependency in which it is not the asylum seeker himself who is dependent on the assistance of the member of his family who is present in a Member State other than that identified as responsible pursuant to the criteria laid down in Chapter III of Regulation No 343/2003 but the family member present in that other Member State who is dependent on the assistance of the asylum seeker. That provision is also applicable where the humanitarian grounds referred to therein are satisfied in relation to a dependent person within the meaning of that provision who, not being a family member within the meaning of Article 2(i) of that regulation, has family ties with the asylum seeker, and is a person to whom the asylum seeker can actually provide the assistance needed in accordance with Article 11(4) of Regulation No 1560/2003, laying down detailed rules for the application of Regulation No 343/2003 (see para. 32, 43, 47, 54, operative part)