Henna Virkkunen: Making Asylum Procedures Faster and More Efficient Is A Core Objective of Migration Pact

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed to accelerate the implementation of certain aspects of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted last year and due to enter into application in June 2026. The Commission has proposed to frontload two key elements of the Asylum Procedure Regulation to support Member States in processing asylum claims faster and more efficiently for applicants whose claims are likely to be unfounded.

In addition, and to support the same objective, the Commission also proposed to make use of one of the novelties of the Pact and establish an EU list of safe countries of origin, the nationals from which will see their applications processed in an accelerated or border procedure.

Frontloading key elements of the Pact: The Commission has proposed to apply two important rules under the Pact already before the Pact enters into force in June next year. This covers:

20% recognition rate threshold: Member States can apply the border procedure or an accelerated procedure to people coming from countries where, on average, 20% or fewer applicants are granted international protection in the EU.

Safe third countries and safe countries of origin can be designated with exceptions, giving Member States greater flexibility by excluding specific regions or clearly identifiable categories of individuals.

The Commission also proposed to establish a first EU list of safe countries of origin. Some Member States already have national lists of safe countries of origin. An EU list will complement these and support a more uniform application of the concept, which allows Member States to process asylum claims of nationals from countries on the list in an accelerated procedure, on the basis that their claims are unlikely to be successful.

The Commission proposed to establish a first EU list covering Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The Commission is also considering that EU candidate countries, in principle, meet the criteria to be designated as safe countries of origin since as part of their EU membership path, they are working towards reaching the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities. 

A candidate country would be excluded only under certain specific circumstances: indiscriminate violence in conflict situations, sanctions adopted by the Council towards that country, or an EU-wide recognition rate of asylum applicants higher than 20%.

The Commission's proposal draws on an analysis from the EU Agency for Asylum and other sources, including information from Member States, UNHCR, and the EEAS.

The EU list of safe countries of origin can be expanded or reviewed over time. Countries can also be suspended or removed from the list, should they no longer fulfil the criteria for being designated as a safe country of origin.

The designation as a safe country of origin does not establish a guarantee of safety for all nationals of that country. Member States need to conduct an individual assessment of each asylum application, independently from the fact whether a person comes from a safe country of origin or not.  

Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said: “Making asylum procedures faster and more efficient is a core objective of the Pact on Migration and Asylum agreed last year. With today's proposal, we want to advance the implementation of key provisions, equipping Member States with additional tools to streamline asylum processing,".

Added Magnus Brunner, Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration: “We have a little over a year before the Pact on Migration and Asylum enters into full application but where we can go faster, we should go faster. Many Member States are facing a significant backlog of asylum applications, so anything we can do now to support faster asylum decisions is essential. The Pact provisions on recognition rates and applying the safe country of origin concept can help Member States deal with claims more quickly, whilst always ensuring that every asylum claim still receives an individual assessment and is subject to the scrutiny of national courts.”