On Monday, 13 October, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties will debate the report by Alessandro Ciriani (ECR, Italian) on amending the ‘Asylum Procedures’ Regulation establishing a list of ‘safe countries of origin’ (see EUROPE 13623/1).
In his document published on 26 September, the Italian seems quite satisfied with the European Commission’s proposal and only contributes a few amendments to it. He notably specifies that an EU candidate country can be designated as a ‘safe country’ except where “there is a serious and individual threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict in the country” but with geographical distinctions.
That is to say, “unless the threat is limited to a specific geographical area and the civilian can access effective protection in another part of the country”.
The same applies to the seven countries officially included on the common list (India, Bangladesh, Colombia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Kosovo).
The regulation also insists on flexibility and an option for Member States to designate other third countries as ‘safe countries of origin’ at the national and EU levels.
The MEP insists there be a dynamic review mechanism for the list. Also, in order to ensure uniform application of the regulation across all Member States and greater legal certainty, he proposes “not only to clarify the circumstances determining suspension but also to establish a clear and coordinated mechanism for deciding when a candidate country for accession to the Union can no longer be deemed a safe country of origin or may be reinstated as such after suspension”.
In the explanatory statement, he says that the European Commission “should conduct regular objective assessments of the relevant circumstances and formally notify the Member States of the outcome of those assessments. Such notification should be made public and should take effect uniformly across the Union from a specified date”.
Advocating that his report be adopted very quickly, the pleased rapporteur emphasises, “In a rapidly changing geopolitical and migratory context, the Union has embarked resolutely on a paradigm shift in its management of migration flows and is gradually abandoning the ineffective approaches adopted in its previous models”.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/iwl (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)