CURIA - Documents 7 of 11 https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?docid=753... applicant had not disclosed the fact that he was the subject of judicial investigation in Austria and that he had, in consequence, obtained German nationality by deception. The withdrawal of his naturalisation obtained in Germany has not yet become definitive, by reason of the action for annulment of that decision brought by the applicant in the main proceedings. 29 Sitting as the court of second instance, the Bayerischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof (administrative court of the Land of Bavaria) held, by judgment of 25 October 2005, that the withdrawal of the applicant’s naturalisation on the basis of the first sentence of Article 48(1) of the Code of administrative procedure of the Land of Bavaria was compatible with German law, even though the effect of that withdrawal, once definitive, would be to render the person concerned stateless. 30 The applicant brought an appeal on a point of law (‘Revision’), now pending before the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (federal administrative court), against that judgment of 25 October 2005. 31 The court making the reference points out that the naturalisation acquired by deception by the applicant in the main proceedings was unlawful ab initio and could therefore be withdrawn by the competent German authorities at their discretion. It states that, by virtue of the relevant provisions of Austrian law, that is to say, the StbG, the applicant in the main proceedings does not at present satisfy the conditions for immediate recovery of Austrian nationality. 32 In its judgment the Bayerischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof had noted that if, because naturalisation obtained by deception is withdrawn, a person becomes stateless, with the result that he loses the citizenship of the Union, it suffices, for the proviso formulated by the Court in Case C‑369/90 Micheletti and Others [1992] ECR I‑4239 – to the effect that Member States must exercise their powers in the sphere of nationality having due regard to European Union law – to be observed, that the importance of the rights conferred through that citizenship of the Union should be taken into consideration by the competent German authority when exercising its discretion. According to that court, the effect of assuming that there existed, in European Union law, an obligation to refrain from withdrawing naturalisation obtained by deception would be to strike at the heart of the sovereign power of the Member States, recognised by Article 17(1) EC, to define the detailed rules for the application of their nationality law. 33 On the other hand, the national court considers that the significance and purport of the proviso in Micheletti and Others have not yet been clarified in the Court’s decisions. The Court has merely deduced from that proviso the principle that one Member State may not restrict the effects of a grant of nationality by another Member State by imposing an additional condition for the recognition of that nationality for the purpose of the exercise of a fundamental freedom provided for by the Treaty. According to the national court, it is not sufficiently clear whether the status of being stateless and the loss of citizenship of the Union validly acquired previously, linked to the withdrawal of naturalisation, is compatible with European Union law, in particular, with Article 17(1) EC. 34 The national court considers that it is possible at least that the Republic of Austria, as the Member State of Dr Rottmann’s original nationality, might be bound, by virtue of the duty to cooperate with the Union in good faith and having regard to the values enshrined in the Convention on the reduction of statelessness and in Article 7(1)(b) of the European Convention on nationality, to interpret and apply its national law or to adapt it so as to prevent the person concerned from becoming stateless when, as in the case in the main proceedings, that person has not been given the right to keep his nationality of origin following the acquisition of a foreign nationality. 35 Those were the circumstances in which the Bundesverwaltungsgericht decided to stay proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: ‘(1) Is it contrary to Community law for Union citizenship (and the rights and fundamental freedoms attaching thereto) to be lost as the legal consequence of the fact that the withdrawal in one Member State (the Federal Republic of Germany), lawful as such under national (German) law, of a naturalisation acquired by intentional deception, has the effect of causing 26/05/2021, 10:03