The EU Court demands clear criteria for fast asylum processing

EU countries are allowed to designate specific countries as safe in order to process and also reject asylum applications more quickly.

But they may only do so if the assessment meets strict legal standards.

This is stated by the EU Court on Friday according to the news agency Reuters in a case concerning Italian asylum policy, which may also have implications for other countries.

The court states that applicants and courts must have the opportunity to access the supporting material behind the assessment.

This should, among other things, give those affected by the decision the opportunity to challenge it. This is pointed out by Ditte Brasso Sørensen, who is a senior analyst at the think tank Europa.

“On the one hand, you give member states the right to make this decision, and on the other hand, you are still seeking further harmonization in the EU by saying, here is the framework you must stay within,” she says.

The case before the EU Court concerns two individuals from Bangladesh who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities.

They were then transferred to a center in Albania, and their asylum application was rejected, as Italy classifies Bangladesh as a safe country.

The Italian court that handled the case had asked the EU Court to clarify several questions.

According to the news agency dpa, the court was to determine whether the Italian government may create a list of safe countries, as well as whether the authorities must publish the sources underlying the decision. It was also to be determined which criteria are relevant.

“From an Italian perspective, it would be my assumption that they are very satisfied with the ruling,” assesses Ditte Brasso Sørensen.

The EU Court also states on Friday that a country can only be defined as safe if it is safe for everyone.

“This means that you cannot say a country is safe if it is only safe for some population groups,” she says.

Denmark, as a starting point, is outside the EU’s cooperation on, among other things, immigration policy due to the opt-out on justice.

/ritzau/