The German Federal Administrative Court asked the CJEU to interpret the exclusion clause of the Qualification Directive (Article 12(2)(b) and (c)) in order to know if being member of a group considered as a terrorist organisation by the EU could fall under one of the criteria for exclusion.
However, in its answer, the CJEU stated that persons can be excluded from refugee status even if they currently don’t represent a danger to the host Member State. Also, according to the CJEU, exclusion is not conditional on an assessment of proportionality between the reasons for exclusion and the risk faced by the person if deported to his or her home country.
Member States may still grant international protection under their national law provided that does not entail a risk of confusion with refugee status within the meaning of the Qualification Directive.