Case C-158/23, Keren: Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 4 February 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Raad van State – Netherlands) – T.G. v Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Asylum policy – Refugee status or subsidiary protection status – Directive 2011/95/EU – Article 34 – Access to integration facilities – Obligation to pass, on pain of a fine, a civic integration examination – Beneficiary of international protection who has not passed such an examination in time – Obligation to pay a fine – Obligation to bear the full costs of civic integration courses and examinations – Possibility of obtaining a loan in order to pay those costs)
Date: 2025-02-04
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: asylum seeker, fine, integration of migrants, international protection, loan, refugee, right of asylum, social integration








C_202501733EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/1733


31.3.2025






Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 4 February 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Raad van State – Netherlands) – T.G. v Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid


(Case C-158/23,
                (1)
Keren)
                (2)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Asylum policy - Refugee status or subsidiary protection status - Directive 2011/95/EU - Article 34 - Access to integration facilities - Obligation to pass, on pain of a fine, a civic integration examination - Beneficiary of international protection who has not passed such an examination in time - Obligation to pay a fine - Obligation to bear the full costs of civic integration courses and examinations - Possibility of obtaining a loan in order to pay those costs)
(C/2025/1733)
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Raad van State

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: T.G.

Defendant: Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 34 of Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted
must be interpreted as meaning that it does not preclude national legislation which obliges beneficiaries of international protection to pass a civic integration examination, provided that:






—


the implementation of that obligation enables genuine account to be taken of the specific needs and characteristics of those beneficiaries’ situation and of the particular integration challenges with which they are confronted;










—


the knowledge required to pass that examination is set at an appropriate level, without exceeding what is necessary to promote the integration of those beneficiaries into the society of the host Member State;










—


any beneficiary of international protection is relieved of the obligation to pass that examination if he or she is able to demonstrate, having regard to the living conditions and circumstances characterising his or her stay in the host Member State, that he or she is already effectively integrated into the society of that State.




On the other hand, that Article 34 must be interpreted as precluding the fact of having failed such an examination from being systematically penalised by a fine and also as precluding that fine from being of such an amount as to constitute an unreasonable financial burden for the person concerned, account being taken of his or her personal and family situation.










2.


Article 34 of Directive 2011/95
must be interpreted as meaning that:






—


it precludes national legislation pursuant to which beneficiaries of international protection themselves bear the full costs of civic integration courses and examinations;










—


the fact that those beneficiaries can obtain a loan from the public authorities in order to pay those costs and that they are granted a debt write-off in respect of that loan if they pass, within the period prescribed, their civic integration examination or if, within that period, they are exempted from or relieved of the civic integration obligation is not capable of remedying the incompatibility of that legislation with that Article 34.










(1)  
            OJ C 235, 3.7.2023.

(2)  The name of the present case is a fictitious name. It does not correspond to the real name of any party to the proceedings.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/1733/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)