The Court of Justice has identified several potential considerations: the risk of seriously undermining the financial balance of a social security system, the objective of maintaining on grounds of public health a balanced medical and hospital service open to all and the objective of maintaining treatment capacity or medical competence on national territory, essential for the public health, and even the survival of the population.

9. Calls on the Member States to take appropriate measures to stop female genital mutilation; stresses that preventing and banning female genital mutilation and prosecuting perpetrators must become a priority in all relevant EU policies and programmes; points out that immigrants residing in the Community should be aware that female genital mutilation is a serious assault on women's health and a violation of human rights; calls on the Commission in this context to devise a comprehensive strategic approach at EU level, with the aim of putting an end to the practice of female genital mutilation in the EU;

9. Calls on the Member States to take appropriate measures to stop female genital mutilation; stresses that preventing and banning female genital mutilation and prosecuting perpetrators must become a priority in all relevant European Union policies and programmes; points out that immigrants residing in the Community should be aware that female genital mutilation is a serious assault on women's health and a violation of human rights; calls in this context on the Commission to devise a comprehensive strategic approach at European level with the aim of putting an end to the practice of female genital mutilation in the European Union;

25. Stresses that preventing and banning female genital mutilation and prosecuting perpetrators must become a priority in all relevant European Union policies and programmes; points out that immigrants residing in the Community should be aware that female genital mutilation is a serious assault on their health; calls on the Member States to adopt administrative provisions concerning health centres and the medical profession, as well as codes of conduct, decrees and ethical codes, to ensure that health professionals report cases of which they are aware or instances of people at risk who need protection; calls on the Commission to devis ...[+++]e a comprehensive strategic approach at European level with the aim of putting an end to the practice of female genital mutilation in the European Union; calls on the European Union to support the wish of African NGOs to declare 6 February International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation and calls for this position also to be adopted in the appropriate United Nations bodies;

‘person eligible for subsidiary protection’ means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of origin, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm as defined in Article 15, and to whom Article 17(1) and (2) do not apply, and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to ...[+++] avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.

4. The fact that an applicant has already been subject to persecution or serious harm or to direct threats of such persecution or such harm, is a serious indication of the applicant's well-founded fear of persecution or real risk of suffering serious harm, unless there are good reasons to consider that such persecution or serious harm will not be repeated.