On Friday 19 December, the Member States’ permanent representatives to the EU approved the provisional agreements reached with European Parliament on 18 December on the new rules relating to the concepts of ‘safe third country’ (STC) and ‘safe country of origin’ (SCO) (see EUROPE 13776/7).
The negotiations had taken longer on SCO, due to Italian rapporteur for the ECR Alessandro Ciriani’s wish to limit judicial review of the sources of information allowing a country to be declared ‘of safe origin’ (and therefore to proceed with accelerated examinations of asylum applications submitted by nationals of these countries).
The EU Council did not accede to this request, fearing it would undermine the independence of the judiciary. The paragraph agreed in trilogue includes the following wording: “The designation of a third country as a safe country of origin [...] is based on reliable, official and duly substantiated relevant and available sources. [...] Therefore, in the context of national judicial review, the detailed evidence regarding applicants’ individual situation justifying the applicability of the concept of safe country of origin should be the main purpose of the assessment. In accordance with the Treaties, the Court of Justice is competent to rule on any doubts on the validity of a designation of a third country as a safe country of origin at Union level”.
Solidarity pool. The procedure for adopting the 2026 solidarity pool in writing under the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’, however, has been extended until 22 December, after Member States, such as Portugal, made new commitments (see EUROPE 13773/30). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)