The Supreme Administrative Court has repealed the Decision No 180 of 30 March 2022 of the Council of Ministers amending Decision No 144 of the Council of Ministers of 2022 on granting temporary protection to displaced persons from Ukraine and amending the National Action Plan for Temporary Protection in the Republic of Bulgaria. The contested decision No 180 of 30 March 2022, provided that displaced persons from Ukraine can receive temporary protection even without their express declaration of will and registration for the use of temporary protection and third country nationals not Ukrainian citizens and stateless until 15 April 2022.
The Supreme Administrative Court found the decision contrary to the Temporary Protection Directive and to the national legislation, namely the Law on Asylum and Refugee. It stated that the time limit provided in the decision is a restrictive condition contrary to the EU Law because Member States are not allowed to adopt less favourable conditions than those defined in Directive 2001/55/EC on minimum standards for giving temporary protection.
The court noted that the minimum standards provided by the Directive aim to ensure to the greatest extent the rights of displaced and vulnerable groups of persons and the contested decision were found contrary to those objectives because it cannot meet the need to ensure the safe passage of persons with a view for them to return to their country or region of origin.
In addition, the court stated that the contested decision is contrary to national provisions of the Law on Asylum and Refugees, which mentions that temporary protection is granted in the event of a mass influx of foreigners who are forced to leave their country of origin due to armed conflict, civil war, foreign aggression, violation of human rights or large-scale violence on the territory of the country concerned, or in a separate area from it, and who cannot for these reasons return there. The national legislation did not provide for displaced persons to receive protection without registration and to be limited to a certain deadline.
The court found unlawful the provision of the contested decision which stated that third country nationals who are not Ukrainian citizens or stateless would receive temporary protection, without their express declaration of will because such situation deprives them of the option to choose to apply for immediate protection or to apply for individual international protection, which is available to them under Council Implementing Decision (EC) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 and Article 17 and Article 19 from Directive 2001/55/EC.
The Supreme Administrative Court stated also held that the contested decision lacks clarity with regard to the eligible persons for temporary protection and that it does not correspond to the provisions of the Council Implementing Decision (EC) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022, because eligible groups of persons cannot be identified. Moreover, the wording of the decision does not contain the additional requirements for persons, including valid permanent residence permit, certification of legal residence in Ukraine or other, thus the Supreme Administrative Court considered that the contested decision is illegal and contrary to the Articles 2, § 1, § 2 and § 3 of the Implementing Decision (EC) 2022/382 of the Council of March 4, 2022.
This decision can be further appealed before a five-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court within 14 days of notification to the parties.