MEPs in the Civil Liberties Committee adopted, with 40 votes in favour, 32 against and no abstention, their position on the new rules under which member states may decide that a non-EU country is a safe third country (STC) with respect to an asylum applicant, and declare the application inadmissible. The text adopted is in line with a proposal by the Commission to update this provision in the Asylum Procedure Regulation.

The new rules would require one of the three following conditions be met where EU countries choose to apply the STC concept in individual cases:

• a connection between the applicant and the third country; MEPs propose this connection may be considered established where members of the applicant’s family are present in the third country concerned, if the applicant stayed there previously, or if there are linguistic, economic, cultural, religious or geographical links
• applicants have transited through a third country where they could have requested effective…