Refugees and stateless persons – common standards for qualification (until 2026)

KEY POINTS

Purpose and definitions

• Common standards are set for determining who qualifies as a refugee or as a person eligible for subsidiary protection, and for determining the content of international protection. However, Member States remain free to introduce or keep more favourable rules for the persons in need of protection.
• Refugees and persons eligible for subsidiary protection are defined, as are their family members – extended to the father, mother or other adult responsible for the beneficiary of international protection if the person is under 18 (a minor) and unmarried.

Assessment of applications

• Member States have a shared duty to cooperate actively with the applicant when determining the relevant elements of an application.
• A non-exhaustive list is given of aspects including facts, statements and circumstances (for example, if the person has suffered persecution) which must be taken into account in the assessment on an individual, objective and impartial basis.
• When they have made every effort to submit and substantiate their application and the general credibility of their application has been established, asylum seekers should be given the benefit of the doubt even if the application lacks documentary or other evidence.
• Applicants may be considered not to need international protection if they can benefit from internal protection from persecution or serious harm in any part of the territory of their country of origin to which they can safely and legally have access and where they can reasonably be expected to settle.
• The directive clarifies that:
  • protection against persecution or serious harm can only be provided by the state or parties or organisations, including international organisations, controlling the state or a substantial part of its territory;
  • these parties should be able and willing to offer effective and non-temporary protection;
  • the applicant should have access to such protection.
• Member States should use precise and up-to-date information from relevant sources, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Union Agency for Asylum.

Qualifying for refugee status

• What an act of persecution is within the meaning of the Geneva Convention is clarified with regard to the status of refugees, and the different forms it can take.
• There must be a reason for the persecution, and the text indicates the aspects – race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion – to be taken into account for assessing reasons for persecution.
• The absence of protection from persecution for one of the reasons indicated above is also a reason to qualify for refugee status.

Qualifying for subsidiary protection

The serious harm a non-EU national concerned would risk suffering if returned to his or her country of origin, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, includes:

• the death penalty or execution;
• torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
• serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of armed conflict.

Losing or being excluded from refugee status or subsidiary protection

The directive lists:

• circumstances in which refugee status or subsidiary protection cease (for instance where the applicant acquires a new nationality) or are excluded (for example if the applicant has committed a war crime or a crime against humanity);
• grounds on which those rights can be revoked, ended or their renewal refused – including when there are reasonable grounds for regarding the applicant as a danger to the security or the community of the host Member State.

Content of international protection

The content of the status of a beneficiary of subsidiary protection is brought closer to that of a refugee, largely eliminating the possibility for Member States to limit the access to some rights to refugees only.

International protection to be granted by the host Member State includes the following rights.

• Protection from refoulement³.
• Access of refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection to information, in a language they can understand or are reasonably supposed to understand, on the rights and obligations related to their status.
• Protection of family unity.
• Unless there are compelling reasons of national security or public order, the issuing of:
  • residence permits – valid for at least 3 years for refugees, and at least 1 year (2 years upon renewal) in the case of subsidiary protection, and
  • travel documents to travel outside the national territory – in the case of subsidiary protection, only when individuals are unable to obtain a national passport.
• Access to employment and employment-related educational and training opportunities, with equal treatment in conditions of employment.
• Access to education – equal treatment with nationals for minors and with legally resident non-EU nationals for adults.
• Equal access to procedures for the recognition of foreign diplomas and professional qualifications.
• Equal treatment with nationals in respect of social welfare (this may be limited to core benefits in the case of subsidiary protection).
• Representation of unaccompanied minors by a legal guardian or, where necessary, by an organisation responsible for the well-being of minors, or by any other appropriate representation as provided within the national legal system.
• Access to accommodation under equivalent conditions to those of other non-EU nationals legally resident.
• Freedom of movement within the national territory under the same conditions and restrictions as for other non-EU nationals legally resident.
• Access to integration facilities.
• If required, assistance for repatriation.

Countries falling outside the scope of the directive

Ireland and the UK* have opted out of the directive, as they were allowed to do by Protocol 21 annexed to the Lisbon Treaty. Consequently, they continue to be bound by Directive 2004/83/EC.

Denmark is not bound by either this or by the previous directive due to the Protocol 22 on its position annexed to the Lisbon Treaty.

Repeal

Directive 2011/95/EU is repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2024/1347 (see summary) as of 11 June 2026.