Case registered before the CJEU under Case C-568/21

The State Secretary for Justice and Security did not consider the application for international protection submitted by the applicants, third country nationals, because the father worked for his country’s embassy in another EU country. The applicants form a family and have received diplomatic cards from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that Member State, issued under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. After several years, the applicants left that country and submitted an application for international protection in the Netherlands.

The State Secretary for Justice and Security considered that the other Member State is responsible for processing the application but the later rejected the readmission request in August 2019, and argued that the applicants stayed in the other Member State solely on the basis of their diplomatic passports. The State Secretary requested a re-examination of the decision by the other Member State based on the fact that residence permits were issued and on 25 September 2019 the Member State X accepted the readmission. By decision of 29 January 2020 the State Secretary refused to process the application because the other Member State is responsible for examining the application. The applicants appealed against and the Court of the Hague considered that the diplomatic cards were only declaratory in nature and the State Secretary erroneously assessed that the other Member State is responsible for examining the applications for international protection.

The State Secretary appealed against and the Council of State decided to stay the procedure because it could not answer the question of whether a diplomatic card provides a residence permit under the Dublin Regulation and there is no agreement amongst EU countries.

In order to be able to take a decision in this case, the Administrative Jurisdiction Division addressed the following question to the CJEU:

Must Article 2(l) of the Dublin Regulation be interpreted as meaning that a diplomatic card issued by a Member State under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is a residence permit within the meaning of that provision?