Official Journal of the European Union 30.9.2004 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular points 1(c), 2(a) and 3(a) of Article 63 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (*), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (), Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (), Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (%), Whereas: (1) A common policy on asylum, including a Common European Asylum System, is a constituent part of the European Union’s objective of progressively establishing an area of freedom, security and justice open to those who, forced by circumstances, legitimately seek protec- tion in the Community. The European Council at its special meeting in Tampere on 15 and 16 October 1999 agreed to work towards establishing a Common European Asylum System, based on the full and inclusive application of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951 (Geneva Convention), as supplemented by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967 (Protocol), thus affirming the principle of non-refoulement and ensuring that nobody is sent back to persecution. The Geneva Convention and Protocol provide the cornerstone of the international legal regime for the protection of refugees. The Tampere conclusions provide that a Common Euro- pean Asylum System should include, in the short term, the approximation of rules on the recognition of refu- gees and the content of refugee status. The Tampere conclusions also provide that rules regarding refugee status should be complemented by measures on subsidiary forms of protection, offering an 51 E, 26.2.2002, p. 325. 300 E, 11.12.2003, p. 25. () oc () o] C () O] C221,17.9.2002, p. 43. () oc 278, 14.11.2002, p. 44. appropriate status to any person in need of such protec- tion. The main objective of this Directive is, on the one hand, to ensure that Member States apply common criteria for the identification of persons genuinely in need of inter- national protection, and, on the other hand, to ensure that a minimum level of benefits is available for these persons in all Member States. The approximation of rules on the recognition and content of refugee and subsidiary protection status should help to limit the secondary movements of appli- cants for asylum between Member States, where such movement is purely caused by differences in legal frame- works. It is in the very nature of minimum standards that Member States should have the power to introduce or maintain more favourable provisions for third country nationals or stateless persons who request international protection from a Member State, where such a request is understood to be on the grounds that the person concerned is either a refugee within the meaning of Article 1(A) of the Geneva Convention, or a person who otherwise needs international protection. Those third country nationals or stateless persons, who are allowed to remain in the territories of the Member States for reasons not due to a need for international protection but on a discretionary basis on compassionate or humanitarian grounds, fall outside the scope of this Directive. This Directive respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In particular this Directive seeks to ensure full respect for human dignity and the right to asylum of applicants for asylum and their accompanying family members. With respect to the treatment of persons falling within the scope of this Directive, Member States are bound by obligations under instruments of international law to which they are party and which prohibit discrimination.