24

In those circumstances, the Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats Amsterdam (District Court, The Hague, sitting in Amsterdam) decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: ‘(1) Must Article 23(3) of [the Dublin III Regulation] be interpreted as meaning that Italy has become responsible for examining the application for international protection lodged by the applicant in that country on 23 October 2014, despite the fact that the Netherlands were the Member State primarily responsible on the basis of the applications for international protection … previously lodged in that country, the last of which was still under examination in the Netherlands at that time, because the [Raad van State (Council of State)] had not yet delivered judgment in the appeal brought by the applicant against the ruling of [the referring court] of 7 July 2014 …? (2) Does it follow from Article 18(2) of [the Dublin III Regulation] that [examination of] the application for international protection which was still [ongoing] in the Netherlands when the [take back] request of 5 March 2015 was submitted should have been suspended by the Netherlands authorities immediately after that [take back] request had been submitted and should have been halted following the expiry of the period specified in Article 24 [of that regulation] through revocation or amendment of the earlier decision of 11 June 2014 rejecting the asylum application of 4 June 2014? (3) If the answer to Question 2 is in the affirmative, has the responsibility for examining the applicant’s application for international protection not been transferred to Italy but remained with the Netherlands authorities, because the defendant has not revoked or amended the decision of 11 June 2014? (4) Did the Netherlands authorities, by not mentioning the appeal in the second asylum procedure pending before the [Raad van State (Council of State)] in the Netherlands, fall short of the responsibility resting on them pursuant to Article 24(5) of [the Dublin III Regulation] to supply the Italian authorities with such information as would enable those authorities to check whether Italy [was] the Member State responsible on the basis of the criteria laid down in that Regulation? (5) If the answer to Question 4 is in the affirmative, does that shortcoming lead to the conclusion that the responsibility for examining the applicant’s application for international protection has thereby not been transferred to Italy, but has remained with the Netherlands authorities? (6) If the responsibility has not remained with the Netherlands, ought the Netherlands authorities then, with regard to the surrender of the applicant by Italy to the Netherlands in the context of the criminal proceedings against him, pursuant to Article 17(1) of [the Dublin III Regulation], in derogation from Article 3(1) [thereof], to have examined the application for international protection lodged by the applicant in Italy, and, by extension, ought those authorities, in all reasonableness, not to have made use of the power laid down in Article 24(1) of [the Dublin III Regulation] to request the Italian authorities to take back the applicant?’