Recital (65) · Regulation (EU) 2026/2280

(65)This Regulation puts in place a new common system of return of illegally staying third-country nationals, to be directly implemented by national authorities. That new system brings about important novelties aimed at improving the efficiency of the return procedure, including with regard to the third countries of return and the external dimension of returns. To allow for the prompt application of the measures provided for in this Regulation, this Regulation should enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The provisions not referred to in Article 50(2) of this Regulation that will supersede Directive 2008/115/EC and aim at fully replacing the legal framework provided for by that Directive should apply from 17 October 2027 with a view to allowing for all the necessary preparatory and operational steps to be taken and ensuring its smooth, effective and consistent implementation at Union and national levels, as well as to avoiding any overlap between that Directive and this Regulation. Directives 2001/40/EC and 2008/115/EC and Council Decision 2004/191/EC^note should therefore be repealed from that date.

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Defined terms · 11

Show every defined term

absconding
means the action by which a third-country national does not remain available to the competent administrative or judicial authorities;
country of return
means one of the following:
decision ordering removal
means an administrative or judicial act or decision stating or declaring that a third-country national can be removed to one or more countries of return;
entry ban
means an administrative or judicial act or decision prohibiting the entry into and stay on the territory of the Member States of a third-country national;
illegal stay
means the presence, on the territory of a Member State, of a third-country national who does not fulfil, or who no longer fulfils, the entry conditions for third-country nationals as set out in Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/399, or the conditions for stay or residence in that Member State, or, in the case of a Member State not bound by that Regulation, the conditions for entry, stay or residence laid down in equivalent national law;
removal
means the enforcement of a return decision or a decision ordering removal by the competent authorities through physical transportation from the Member States to a country of return;
return
means the actions by which an illegally staying third-country national:
return decision
means an administrative or judicial act or decision, stating or declaring the stay of a third-country national to be illegal and stating or imposing an obligation for that third-country national to leave the territory of the Member States;
return operation
means an operation organised or coordinated by a competent authority or supported by Frontex by which third-country nationals are returned from one or more Member States.
third-country national
means any person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and who is not a person enjoying the right of free movement under Union law, as defined in Article 2, point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2016/399;
voluntary return
means the departure from the territory of the Member States on his or her own, with or without assistance, and without resorting to removal, of an illegally staying third-country national complying with the obligation to leave within or after the expiry of the departure period set out in the return decision;