Temporary protection and EU refugees: stretching protection, testing fragile trust. The recalibration of EU asylum law from Ukrainian displacement to intra-EU asylum

This Article examines the constitutional implications of two seemingly distinct developments in EU asylum law: the activation of temporary protection for persons displaced from Ukraine and the emergence of asylum claims by some EU citizens within the Union. It argues that temporary protection has stretched the EU protection paradigm by suspending the ordinary Dublin logic and introducing an unprecedented degree of solidarity among Member States grounded in mutual trust. The Article explores various feature of temporary protection through an analysis of recent case law of the Court of Justice, including on the evolving relationship between temporary and international protection. It then assesses whether EU citizenship can preclude needs for refugee status within the Union. Taken together, these trajectories expose structural tensions inherent in the architecture of protection in the EU legal order.