Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2014:1933
Date: 2014-06-12
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Area of freedom, security and justice
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 10 September 2014 Border controls, asylum and immigration — Immigration policy — Admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service — Directive 2004/114 — Conditions — Refusal to admit a person who meets the conditions laid down by the directive — Unlawful — Discretion enjoyed by the competent authorities (Council Directive 2004/114, Arts 6, 7 and 12) Article 12 of Directive 2004/114 on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service must be interpreted as meaning that the Member State concerned is obliged to admit to its territory a third-country national who wishes to stay for more than three months in that territory for study purposes, where that national meets the conditions for admission exhaustively listed in Articles 6 and 7 of that directive and provided that that Member State does not invoke against that person one of the grounds expressly listed by the directive as justification for refusing a residence permit. In fact, the measure of discretion which Member States are allowed to exercise when considering applications for admission under the directive relates only to the conditions laid down in Articles 6 and 7 of the directive and, within that context, to the assessment of the relevant facts in order to determine whether those conditions are met and, in particular, whether there are grounds relating to the existence of a threat to public policy, public security or public health which preclude the admission of the third-country national. (see paras 33, 36, operative part)