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On 15 January 2026, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in case C-742/24 [Havvitt] concerning the reasons to refuse access to labour market for an applicant for international protection. 

The case concerned an asylum applicant’s delay in submitting the required international protection questionnaire to the competent Irish authorities despite receiving several extensions due to COVID-19 related disruptions. Due to this delay, the authorities rejected his request to access the labour market on the grounds of his alleged non-cooperation. Following domestic litigation, the Supreme Court of Ireland decided to ask the CJEU whether “delay” under Article 15(1) of Directive 2013/33/EU (RCD) must be a delay caused solely by the asylum applicant, or whether any material delay that can be partly attributed to the applicant, such as a ninemonth failure to answer an international protection questionnaire, counts as “noncooperation” even when the Member State or external factors (e.g., COVID19) also contribute. The national court also sought to determine whether the wording “attributed in part” in Ireland’s Reception Conditions Regulations 2018 is compatible with the RCD’s transposition requirements, given the discretion Member States have in implementing the rules. 

The Court recalled that access to the labour market must be granted if no first-instance decision is taken within nine months from the lodging of the application, unless the delay is attributable to the applicant. Drawing on Directive 2013/32 (APD) and the relationship between attribution of delay and obligation to cooperate under Articles 31 (3) and 13 APD, as well as its own case-law, the Court held that delays are attributable to the applicant where they result from a failure to cooperate with the authorities, including the obligation to provide information and documents necessary to examine the application. A total lack of cooperation throughout the relevant period may prevent the nine-month period from running at all, whereas partial failures to cooperate should result in the nine-month period being extended only by the time corresponding to the applicant’s failure to cooperate; any delays attributable solely to other causes should be excluded from that extension. 

Where delays have mixed causes, attributable both to the applicant and to the Member State or external factors such as a pandemic, these delay may be attributed to the applicant only where a causal link is established between the applicant’s conduct and the delay, and only to the extent of the applicant’s share of responsibility. Where it is possible to determine that share, the competent authorities may extend the nine-month period only by the fraction of time corresponding to the applicant’s contribution to the delay, not by the entire period affected by mixed causes.  

Finally, the Court found that Article 15(1) RCD allows a Member State to refuse labour market access where the application has been pending for at least nine months and the delay is partly attributable to the applicant, provided the refusal is based only on the period or proportion of delay causally linked to the applicant’s conduct.