Interim decree (Article 35-bis(4) of Legislative Decree 25/2008) · N.R.G. 13060-1/2026
Unofficial translation of the SOS Patto summary. The original decision or document is available in Italian only.
Headnote
The "lodging" to which Article 79(3) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 ties the application of the Regulation is the technical institution defined by recital 29 and Article 28: a new stage, subsequent to making and registration, in which the applicant sets out in person the grounds of the application with the guarantees of Articles 8, 15 and 16, including free legal counselling. The C3 form of Italian practice is a mere registration and does not fall within it. It follows that Article 17(4) of Decree-Law 100/2026, which retains the former rules for applications made before 12 June 2026, does not conflict with the Regulation and must be applied, with no need for disapplication or a preliminary reference. The expression of the wish to apply prior to that date, alleged by the applicant, partly documented and not contested by the administration — on which the burden of proving the course of the application lies by reason of proximity — makes the former rules applicable; the overrunning of the time limits of the accelerated procedure rules out the halving of the time limit for appeal and, according to Cass., Sez. Un., no. 11399/2024, entails the automatic suspension of the contested decision.
The Tribunale di Bologna (judge Dr Marco Gattuso) finds that the timely appeal suspended the enforceability of the rejection as manifestly unfounded, decided by the Commissione applying Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 on the basis of the C3 form drawn up on 10 July 2026 by the Questura of Reggio Emilia. The applicant, who had entered Italy on 28 May 2026, had sent the application to the Questura on 9 June and had presented himself there on 10 June, receiving an invitation to return the following week.
By decree of 20 August the judge had asked the parties for a submission on the applicable regime. The Commissione filed nothing. Since the burden of proving the correctness of the procedure lies with the administration, which holds the records, and the principle of non-contestation applies, the expression of the wish made before 12 June 2026 is held to be proved.
The decree resolves the "apparent inconsistency" between Article 79(3) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 ("lodged") and Article 17(4) of Decree-Law 100/2026 ("making"). Lodging is a new institution, defined by recital 29 and Article 28, in which the applicant, informed and with free legal counselling (Articles 8(2), point (d), 15 and 16), sets out in person the grounds of the application; the Italian C3 has always been its opposite, a "mere registration". The criterion of Article 79(3) therefore concerns only lodgings that comply with the Regulation, and does not require applications made before 12 June to be lodged. The Italian legislature's choice to leave them under the former rules "does not conflict" with the Regulation: there is no need to disapply it, "as instead held […] in some recent first-instance precedents", nor to refer the matter to the Court of Justice. The judge stresses the certainty of the procedure: the applicant must know whether the time limit for appeal is five, seven or thirty days.
Applying Directive 2013/32/EU and the former domestic rules, more than the seven plus two days provided for manifest unfoundedness elapsed between the C3 (10 July) and the decision (3 August). The procedure is not accelerated, the time limit for appeal is not halved and the appeal is timely; under Cass., Sez. Un., no. 11399/2024 the automatic suspension is restored.
On the premise the decree conflicts with Trib. Bologna 14126-1/2026, which holds Article 17(4) incompatible with Article 79(3); see also Trib. Bologna 13590-1/2026.
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