Interim order (Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure – reopening of the procedure under Article 23-bis of Legislative Decree 25/2008) · R.G. 8344/2026
Unofficial translation of the SOS Patto summary. The original decision or document is available in Italian only.
Headnote
The suspension of the administrative procedure for examining an international protection application for failure to attend the interview, ordered by the Commissione territoriale under Article 23-bis of Legislative Decree 25/2008, presupposes proof that the summons was properly served; where there is no proof that service was regular — and where the applicant documented that he notified the Questura of his change of address, which was not passed on to the Commissione — the Questura of Bologna, approached by the applicant on the renewal of his provisional permit, is required to inform him that he may ask the Commissione to be summoned again, without the need for a lawyer's assistance; the failure to inform, which led to the termination of the procedure, can be remedied by way of interim relief through the reopening of the procedure, by virtue of the periculum inherent in the conversion of a first application into a subsequent application and its consequent submission to the preliminary admissibility assessment.
The Tribunal of Bologna (judge Cristina Reggiani) orders the reopening of the international protection procedure suspended or terminated by the Commissione territoriale owing to the applicant's failure to attend the interview of 28 March 2025. The appellant — represented by Avv. Sara Puddu — had lodged his application in Bologna on 18 July 2023, having expressed the wish to apply in Terni on 6 September 2022.
The Commissione territoriale did not produce in the proceedings any documentation capable of attesting that the summons was regularly served: the postal card filed by the defence shows only that service was attempted on 29 January 2025, probably of a notice of summons. The appellant, who had moved to Forlì on 12 February 2025, was unaware of the summons set for 28 March 2025 and, when he went to the Questura in Bologna on 9 June 2025 to renew his provisional permit, learned for the first time of the interview that had been scheduled.
On this point the decree is particularly clear. On that occasion “the Questura of Bologna had all the elements to establish that the notice of summons had not been properly served”, yet no useful guidance was given to the applicant “to remedy what had happened”: police officials merely referred him to a lawyer, “without informing him that he could ask the Commissione to be summoned again for the interview, giving his new address, something the applicant could do himself without the assistance of a lawyer”. The termination of the procedure is “merely the consequence” of that information deficit, “not an expression of a lack of interest” on the applicant's part.
The Tribunal finds the periculum in the “characterisation of the application as a subsequent application and, therefore, its submission to the preliminary admissibility assessment” under Article 29-bis of Legislative Decree 25/2008 — a “very different and far more burdensome situation” than that of a person applying for the first time. The appellant also has a specific interest in reopening “in view of the more favourable substantive rules” applicable ratione temporis, having expressed the wish to apply before the 2023 amendment of Article 19 of Legislative Decree 286/1998.
Granting the interim application, the Tribunal orders the Commissione territoriale of Bologna to reopen the procedure and summon the appellant for the interview, with costs set off.
The order adds a piece to the line of authority that gives weight to the applicant's good faith and to the duty to inform borne by the authorities at first contact; it is to be read alongside Cass. 14851/2026, cited in the decrees on the relevance of contacts with the Questura for the dies a quo of access to the procedure.
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