Paving the way to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: Some reflections on Ministero dell’Interno (Joined Cases C-228/21, C-254/21, C-297/21, C-315/21, C-328/21)

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The annotation analyses the CJEU preliminary ruling in the Ministero dell’Interno case, among the latest interventions of the Court interpreting the Dublin system. The Court confirmed its case law enhancing the prescriptiveness of procedural rights awarded to asylum seekers subject to transfer decisions, touching upon the rights to information and to be heard in take-back procedures. At the same time, the judges adopted a very conservative approach over possible rebuttals of the principle of mutual trust: national courts cannot rely on the divergence of assessments of asylum seekers’ protection needs between Member States to annul a transfer decision, even when such divergences concern the refoulement risks of the return to their country of origin. Ministero dell’Interno is symptomatic of a settled approach of the CJEU in its Dublin case law: the reliance on statutory interpretation when touching upon fundamental rights, and the envision of mutual trust as the fundamental premiss governing the system. The Court case law is presented vis-à-vis the recent adoption of the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation replacing the Dublin III Regulation. With this judgment, the Court provided useful insight into its future position on the soon-to-be-implemented new responsibility-sharing mechanism.