To guarantee the equal treatment of all third-country nationals and stateless persons whose application has been rejected in the context of the border procedure, where a Member State has decided not to apply the provisions of of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) pursuant to the relevant derogation set out therein to third-country nationals and stateless persons and does not issue a return decision to the third-country national concerned, the treatment and level of protection of the applicant, third-country national or stateless person concerned should be in accordance with the provision of on more favourable provisions with regard to third-country nationals excluded from the scope of that Directive and be equivalent to those applicable to persons subject to a return decision.
5. Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals (OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 98). ↩︎