Interim decree (Article 35-bis(3), (4) and (5) of Legislative Decree 25/2008) · N.R.G. 12908-1/2026
Unofficial translation of the SOS Patto summary. The original decision or document is available in Italian only.
Headnote
For the purposes of the transitional rules of Article 17(4) of Decree-Law 100/2026, an application is to be regarded as «made» before 12 June 2026 where, before that date, the applicant expressed the wish to apply for protection and the subsequent lodging took place beyond the time limits laid down by the former rules for a reason not attributable to the applicant but traceable to the administration. The term «presentation» in paragraph 4 is not synonymous with «lodging», used in paragraph 2 of the same provision. Placement in reception is a significant documentary element of the expression of the wish already made, since under Article 2 of Legislative Decree 142/2015 applicant status followed from the expression of the wish alone. The former rules being applied and the time limits of the accelerated procedure having been exceeded both before and after lodging, the Commission could not have ruled a rejection for manifest unfoundedness (Joint Chambers no. 11399/2024): automatic suspension of the contested measure and re-expansion of the thirty-day time limit for the appeal.
The Tribunal of Bologna (judge Angela Baraldi) declared automatically suspended the rejection by which the Commissione territoriale of Bologna — Forlì-Cesena Section, applying Regulation (EU) 2024/1348, had rejected as manifestly unfounded under Article 39(4) the application of a Bangladeshi national. The decree predates by sixteen days Trib. Bologna 13590/2026 of 4 September — same judge, same argument, different proceeding — and precedes it in giving reasons for the reading of Article 17 of Decree-Law 100/2026 on which the summary of 4 September dwells.
There are three dates: expression of the wish — coinciding with entry into reception — on 19 May 2026; lodging of the application on 24 June; decision of the Commission on 10 July. The Commission applied the new Regulation «on the assumption, it must be supposed, of lodging at a date after its entry into force».
The pivot is a comparison within the Italian transitional rule itself. Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of Decree-Law 100/2026 governs the moment at which the application is to be regarded as lodged; paragraph 4 makes the retention of the former rules conditional on presentation before 12 June 2026. Two different words in the same provision rule out that they are synonyms: had the legislator wanted equivalence, it would have used the same term, conforming to the vocabulary of Article 79(3) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1348.
Placement in the CAS is, under the former rules, a «significant documentary element of the expression of the wish already made»: under Article 2 of Legislative Decree 142/2015 applicant status followed from the expression of the wish alone, and in the present case a PEC from the centre to the Prefettura, dated 19 May 2026, attests to it. Directive 2013/32/EU and the implementing rules required lodging within three working days of the expression of the wish — six in border procedures, extendable by ten for «exceptional circumstances» to be spelled out. None of these time limits was complied with, and the delay is not attributable to the appellant.
The former rules being applied, failure to comply with the accelerated procedure downgrades it to an ordinary one (Joint Chambers no. 11399/2024): the Commission could not have ruled manifest unfoundedness, the effect of the rejection is automatically suspended and the time limit for the appeal returns to thirty days.
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