The case concerned a reference for a preliminary ruling on the provision of the personal interview before an inadmissibility decision is taken. The applicant, an Eritrean national, applied for asylum in Germany in September 2011. Although he had stated that he had not been to another Member State, it was later established that he had already been given refugee status in Italy so he could be taken back to Italy only under the readmission agreement. Thus his application was rejected as inadmissible on the ground that he had entered Germany from a safe third country and his deportation to Italy was ordered.

Before the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court, Germany), the applicant claimed that he was denied a personal interview before a decision was taken.

The CJEU noted that Article 14(1) APD which establishes the obligation to provide a personal interview also applies to decisions on admissibility. Furthermore, according to the judgment of the CJEU, Articles 14 and 34 of the APD "must be interpreted as precluding national legislation under which failure to comply with the obligation to give an applicant for international protection the opportunity of a personal interview before the adoption of a decision on the basis of Article 33(2)(a) of that directive declaring the application to be inadmissible does not lead to that decision being annulled and the case being remitted to the determining authority, unless that legislation allows the applicant, in the appeal procedure against that decision, to set out in person all of his or her arguments against the decision in a hearing which complies with the applicable conditions and fundamental guarantees set out in Article 15 of that directive, and those arguments are not capable of altering that decision."