CHAPTER II

BASIC PRINCIPLES AND GUARANTEES

Applications made on behalf of dependants or minors
Article 7
1
Member States shall ensure that each adult with legal capacity has the right to make an application for international protection on his or her own behalf.
2
Member States may provide that an application may be made by an applicant on behalf of his or her dependants. In such cases, Member States shall ensure that dependent adults consent to the lodging of the application on their behalf, failing which they shall have an opportunity to make an application on their own behalf.
Consent shall be requested at the time the application is lodged or, at the latest, when the personal interview with the dependent adult is conducted. Before consent is requested, each dependent adult shall be informed in private of the relevant procedural consequences of the lodging of the application on his or her behalf and of his or her right to make a separate application for international protection.
3
Member States shall ensure that a minor has the right to make an application for international protection either on his or her own behalf, if he or she has the legal capacity to act in procedures according to the law of the Member State concerned, or through his or her parents or other adult family members, or an adult responsible for him or her, whether by law or by the practice of the Member State concerned, or through a representative.
4
Member States shall ensure that the appropriate bodies referred to in Article 10 of 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 have the right to lodge an application for international protection on behalf of an unaccompanied minor if, on the basis of an individual assessment of his or her personal situation, those bodies are of the opinion that the minor may have protection needs pursuant to Directive 2011/95/EU.
5
Member States may determine in national legislation:
a
the cases in which a minor can make an application on his or her own behalf;
b
the cases in which the application of an unaccompanied minor has to be lodged by a representative as provided for in Article 25(1)(a);
c
the cases in which the lodging of an application for international protection is deemed to constitute also the lodging of an application for international protection for any unmarried minor.
OJ L 348, 24.12.2008, p. 98.