[para 41] However, as regards its second limb, relating to Türkiye’s compliance with its legal obligations in practice, the same condition is not fulfilled since readmission to Türkiye is not being carried out for applicants for international protection whose applications have been dismissed as inadmissible on “safe third country” grounds. On the contrary, as expressly stated in the service note of the Procedures and Training Section of the Asylum Service of 3 December 2021 (p. 8), which accompanies the recommendation of the Director of the Asylum Service no 438958/21 of 7 December 2021 following which the contested Joint Ministerial Decision was issued… “From March 2020 to present [therefore for a period exceeding twenty months] returns from Greece to Türkiye have frozen”, without any distinction as to the legal basis on which returns are ordered (international agreements or EU-Turkey Statement, as stated above). It also cannot be accepted, as submitted by the State… that it is a temporary “and more or less justified non-implementation [of the statement of 18 March 2016 due to the circumstances]” (“Türkiye temporarily, due to the COVID pandemic, a global and undeniable event), does not accept readmissions over the last period”) is not supported by the elements of the file […]”. Given that reasonable doubts arose as to the meaning of Article 38 of the Directive, the Court postponed its final judgement and formulated preliminary questions to the CJEU. The Court requested clarification as to whether Article 38 of the Directive should be interpreted as precluding national (regulatory) provisions, which characterises a third country as generally safe for certain categories of applicants for international protection and that country has undertaken the legal obligation to readmit those categories of applicants to its territory, despite the fact that the country that is considered as safe third country has refused readmissions for a period of over twenty months; or whether the readmission to the third country is a cumulative condition for the issuance of the national (regulatory) act, according to which a third country is characterised as generally safe for certain categories of applicants for international protection, or for the issuance of the individual act, according to which a specific application for international protection is rejected as inadmissible on the "safe third country" ground; or, finally, whether the readmission to the "safe third country" should only be determined at the time of the decision’s execution, when the decision to reject the application for international protection is based on the "safe third country" ground. On 14 March 2024, the preliminary questions referred by the Plenary of the Council of State in its judgment No 177/2023 concerning the inclusion of Türkiyein the national list of “safe third countries” was discussed in an oral hearing before the CJEU in Luxembourg,483 while the opinion of the advocate general is expected to be issued in June 2024. The JMD 42799/3-6-2021 declaring Türkiye as a safe third country was amended by Decision No. 458568/2021 (FEK 5949/16-12-2021) to include Albania and Northern Macedonia as safe third countries for all nationals entering Greece from the countries listed.484 In December 2022, JMD 734214/6-12-2022 was issued, confirming the continuity and full validity of the amended JMD 42799/3-6-2021.485 Respectively, in December 2023, JMD 538595/12-12-2023 (FEK 7063/15-12-2023) was issued, following the 485728/31-10-2023 “Recommendation regarding the establishment of the national list of safe third countries according to art. 91 Law 4939/2022” of the Director of the Asylum Service, repeating the content of the amended JMD 42799/3-6-2021.486 In 2023, 3.454 asylum applications were found inadmissible at first instance based on the “safe third country” concept.487 Additionally, 1.319 asylum applications were found inadmissible at second instance, including 1.237 in which Türkiye was the “safe third country”, 57 where it was North Macedonia and 25 where it was Albania.488 483 484 485 486 487 488 GCR & RSA, Hearing before the Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday 14 March on the preliminary questions of the Greek Council of State regarding Turkey as a "safe third country", 13 March 2024, available at: https://tinyurl.com/8jwbaccz. See also ECRE, Newsletter, “Greece: […] ― CJEU Hearing on Designation of Türkiye as a “Safe Third Country”, 15 March 2024, available at: https://tinyurl.com/5n8b2etb FEK 5949/16-12-2021, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/5dauc7e8. JMD 734214/6-12-2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3TMbGY3. JMD 538595/12-12-2023 (FEK 7063/15-12-2023), available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/2nntzpw6. MoMA, Statistics, Consolidated Reports - Overview: December 2023 - International Protection | Appendix A, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc2stzh7, table 9a. Ibid., table 9b. 103