As expected, the negotiations begun on Wednesday 17 December between the Danish Presidency of the EU Council on the new concepts of ‘safe third countries’ (STC) and ‘safe countries of origin’ (SCO), both resulting from the revision of the ‘Asylum Procedure' Regulation, rapidly led to a provisional political agreement (see EUROPE 13772/26).
Agreement on the text relating to the ‘STC’ concept was reached during the night of 17 to 18 December, and agreement on the text relating to the ‘SCO’ concept was reached on the morning of Thursday 18 December. The left-wing political groups in the European Parliament had contested the mandates on 17 December, but both texts were confirmed in plenary session thanks to a majority formed by the Christian Democrat (EPP), sovereignist (ECR) and nationalist (PfE, ESN) groups.
STC. On the STC text, one of the points of tension concerned the maintenance of the position taken in the mandate led by Lena Düpont (EPP, German). According to this position, even unaccompanied minors should be returned to third countries with which they have no connection, if they represent a “threat to security or public order” (see EUROPE 13754/6).
According to one source, the EU Council refused this provision and the European Parliament finally gave in.
The final agreement therefore provides for all unaccompanied minors to be excluded from this system of return to a country with which an agreement or arrangement has been reached.
As a reminder, the revision of the ‘STC’ concept sets out the criteria for declaring an asylum application inadmissible within the EU and directing the applicant to a ‘safe third country’ rather than having their application examined by the EU.
The revision also makes optional the “connection” criterion, which is currently mandatory for designating a country as “safe”. People can thus be sent to any country they transited through to reach the EU, including simply crossing the border, or even to any country to which they have never been and with which they have no linguistic, cultural or other links, provided that an agreement or arrangement has been concluded between the EU or one (or more) Member State(s) and this third country, stipulating that the latter will subsequently examine the asylum application.
The text also removes the automatic suspensive effect of appeals in such cases.
SCO. On the concept of safe countries of origin (SCO) and the first common EU list of safe countries of origin (see EUROPE 13729/4), one of the sticking points is said to have been the issue of national judicial review. According to some sources, the rapporteur, Alessandro Ciriani (ECR, Italian), was in favour of limiting this framework, following a national logic.
Indeed, this new ‘SCO’ text is said to have been proposed mainly to facilitate the plans of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in Albania, who has several times been at odds on this issue with the Italians courts, which have accepted appeals from Egyptian and Bangladeshi nationals on the basis of this concept of ‘safe countries of origin’.
But this request from the rapporteur was not supported, according to one source.
The text of the agreement creates a first European list of safe countries of origin, namely Egypt, Tunisia, India, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia and Morocco. Nationals from these countries will therefore, in principle, be quickly refused asylum in the EU and sent back home.
A new category has also been created designating all EU candidate countries as ‘safe countries of origin’ at EU level, except in the following cases: - if there is a situation of international or internal armed conflict in the candidate country; - if restrictive measures affecting fundamental rights and freedoms have been adopted against a candidate country; - if 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 Council is said to have agreed to also inform the European Parliament, and not just the Member States and the Council, of the activation of exceptions. And the European Parliament reportedly dropped a provision aimed at including on this list any country with a rate of recognition of asylum applications of less than 20%.
Criticism. The new “rules on asylum and ‘safe countries’ undermine the foundation of refugee protection”, responded Amnesty International in a press release.
The changes to the ‘STC’ text “mean that people seeking asylum in the EU may see their applications rejected without review, they could be sent to countries to which they have no connection and may have never set foot in before”. In addition, the agreement on ‘safe countries of origin’ undermines the individual assessment of asylum applications, the NGO said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)