Several Italian courts have referred preliminary ruling requests (about fifty) to the Court of Justice, seeking clarification on the interpretation of EU legislation regarding the concept of a safe country of origin.
Some of the key issues raised by the referring courts are outlined below.
The first two preliminary references were made by the Court of Florence through decrees issued on 4 June 2024 (Cases C-388/24, Oguta, and C-389/24, Daloa). In these cases, the referring court asks whether EU law allows a Member State to designate a third country as a safe country of origin while permitting personal exclusions for certain at-risk categories, and, if so, whether such exclusions can be determined using criteria that are difficult to assess in terms of number and type.
On 29 October 2024, the Court of Bologna submitted a request for a preliminary ruling (Case C-750/24, Ortera). The Court seeks clarification on whether the primacy of EU law over national legal systems obliges national courts to disapply national provisions designating a third country as a safe country of origin, even when these provisions are established in an ordinary statute.
On 4 and 5 November 2024, the Court of Rome filed two decrees referring requests for preliminary rulings in cases C-758/24, Alace, and C-759/24, Canpelli. In addition to raising a question similar to those submitted by the Courts of Florence and Bologna concerning the admissibility of personal exceptions, the referring court posed three further questions to clarify the following legal issues:
- whether a Member State is competent to designate a third country as a safe country of origin by means of a primary legislative act;
- whether the Member State concerned is under an obligation to disclose the sources used to justify that designation, in order to ensure that the applicant for international protection is provided with an effective opportunity to challenge the presumption and that the national court can exercise meaningful judicial review of the designation;
- whether the national court may, in any event, rely on information concerning the country of origin, independently gathered from the sources referred to in Article 37(3) of Directive 2013/32/EU, to determine whether the substantive conditions for such a designation, as laid down in Annex I to that Directive, are met.
The Court decided to prioritise the examination of the questions raised in these two cases, which were joined by an order of 21 November 2024 and assigned to the accelerated procedure.
A public hearing before the Grand Chamber took place on 25 February 2025.
The Advocate General delivered their Opinion on 10 April 2025, and the judgment is expected in June 2025.
All other pending cases have been stayed pending the outcome of these proceedings.