1. During the administrative procedure referred to in Chapter III applicants shall enjoy the guarantees set out in paragraphs 2 to 6 of this Article.
2. The determining authority or, where applicable, other competent authorities or organisations tasked by Member States for that purpose shall inform applicants, in a language which they understand or are reasonably supposed to understand, of the following:
(a) the right to lodge an individual application;
(b) the time limits and stages of the procedure to be followed;
(c) their rights and obligations during the procedure, including those under , and the consequences of not complying with those obligations, in particular as regards the explicit or implicit withdrawal of an application;
(d) the right to free legal counselling for the lodging of the individual application and to legal assistance and representation at all stages of the procedure pursuant to Section III of this Chapter and in accordance with Articles 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19;
(e) the means by which they can fulfil the obligation to submit the elements as referred to in Article 4 of ;
(f) the decision of the determining authority in accordance with Article 36.
All the information referred to in this paragraph shall be provided as soon as possible to enable applicants to exercise the rights guaranteed in this Regulation and to enable them to adequately comply with the obligations set out in Article 9. The information referred to in the first subparagraph, points (a) to (e), of this paragraph shall be provided to the applicant at the latest when the application for international protection is registered. That information shall be provided by means of the leaflet referred to in paragraph 7, either physically or electronically, and, if necessary, orally. Information shall be provided to minors in a child-friendly manner and with the involvement of the representative or the person referred to in Article 23(2), point (a), of this Regulation.
The applicant shall be given the opportunity to confirm that he or she has received the information. Such confirmation shall be documented in the applicant’s file. If the applicant refuses to confirm that he or she has received the information, a note of that fact shall be entered in his or her file.
3. During the administrative procedure, applicants shall be provided with the services of an interpreter for the purpose of registering and lodging an application and, where applicable, for the personal interview, whenever appropriate communication cannot be otherwise ensured. The interpretation services shall be paid for from public funds.
4. The competent authorities shall provide applicants as soon as possible and before the deadline for lodging an application in accordance with Article 28(1), with the opportunity to communicate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or with any other organisation providing legal advice or other counselling to applicants in accordance with national law.
5. The determining authority shall ensure that applicants and, where applicable, their representatives or legal advisers or other counsellors admitted or permitted as such under national law to provide legal advice (‘legal advisers’) have access to the information referred to in Article 34(2), points (b) and (c), that is required for the examination of applications and to the information provided by the experts referred to in Article 34(3), where the determining authority has taken that information into consideration for the purpose of taking a decision on their application.
6. The determining authority shall give applicants notice in writing as soon as possible of the decision taken on their application. Where a representative or legal adviser legally represents the applicant, the determining authority may give notice of the decision to that representative or legal adviser instead of to the applicant.
7. The Asylum Agency shall, in close cooperation with the Commission and each Member State, draw up leaflets containing the information required by this Article. Those leaflets shall be drawn up in such a manner so as to enable Member States to complete them with additional information specific to the Member State concerned and shall take into account the specificities of vulnerable applicants such as minors or disabled persons.
Correlation table
| Directive 2013/32/EU | This Regulation |
| Article 12(1) | Article 8(1) |
| Article 12(1), point (a) | Article 8(2), first subparagraph, points (b),(c), (e), and second subparagraph |
| — | Article 8(2), first subparagraph, points (a) and (d) |
| — | Article 8(2), third subparagraph |
| Article 12(1), point (b) | Article 8(3) |
| Article 12(1), point (c) | Article 8(4) |
| Article 12(1), point (d) | Article 8(5) |
| Article 12(1), point (e) | Article 8(6) |
| Article 12(1), point (f) | Article 8(2), first subparagraph, point (f) |
| — | Article 8(7) |
| Article 12(2) | — |