Council gives final greenlight to measures to make the EU’s asylum system more efficient and robust
Today, the Council formally adopted the first EU-wide list of safe countries of origin as well as a revision of the safe third country concept. These two legislations aim to further harmonise and make more efficient the EU’s migration and asylum framework.
The EU-wide list of safe countries of origin will help member states deal more efficiently with applications for international protection lodged by nationals of those countries.
The revised safe third country concept will give member states more flexibility for rejecting asylum applications as inadmissible.
“This first-ever common EU list of safe countries of origin and the revised safe country concept will support faster, more consistent asylum procedures. They contribute to the materialisation of the migration and asylum pact and mark a concrete step towards its implementation. We are committed to its timely delivery.”
– Nicholas A. Ioannides, Deputy Minister for Migration and International Protection of the Republic of Cyprus
The measures are important for the implementation of the EU’s migration and asylum pact – the EU’s agenda to manage migration more effectively and establish a common asylum system aimed at ensuring efficient and more uniform procedures, as well as fair burden sharing between member states.
EU list of safe countries of origin
The list designates the following countries as safe countries of origin at EU level: Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo*, Morocco and Tunisia.
EU accession candidate countries are also included as safe countries of origin at Union level, unless:
- there is a situation of international or internal armed conflict in the candidate country
- the EU has adopted restrictive measures against the candidate country in questions related to fundamental rights and freedoms or
- the proportion of positive decisions by member state authorities to applications for international protection of citizens from the candidate country is higher than 20%
The common EU list will ensure greater consistency across member states in the assessment of applications from designated safe countries of origin and contribute to faster processing of applications.
Member states will still be able to have their own national lists with additional third countries, which they consider as safe.
Safe third country concept
The safe third country concept allows EU member states to reject an asylum application as inadmissible (without examining its substance) when asylum seekers could have sought and, if eligible, received international protection in a non-EU country that is considered safe for them. The legislation broadens and clarifies the grounds for declaring applications inadmissible on the basis of the concept.
Member states may choose to apply the concept based on three options:
- where there is a connection between the asylum seeker and the safe third country. However, a connection will no longer be a mandatory criterion for using the safe third country concept
- when the applicant transited through the safe country before reaching the EU
- or where there is an agreement or arrangement with a safe country.
Next steps
Except for certain rules that can be frontloaded, the EU list of safe countries of origin and the amendments to the safe third country concept will begin to apply on 12 June 2026, at the same time as the rest of the migration and asylum pact.
Background
The asylum procedure regulation provides for the creation of an EU list of safe countries of origin. At the request of many member states, the Commission proposed this list ahead of the Pact’s implementation.
The safe third country concept is already part of the EU asylum and migration rulebook. Under a review clause foreseen in the Pact, the Commission was required to revisit the current rules for greater harmonisation across the EU.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
