Conclusions de l'Avocat Général Richard de la Tour dans les affaires jointes LC (C‑758/24) [Alace] et CP (C‑759/24) [Canpelli] contre Commissione Territoriale per il riconoscimento della Protezione Internazionale di Roma – sezione procedure alla frontiera II

In today’s Opinion, Advocate General Jean Richard de la Tour confirms that a Member State may designate a third country as a safe country of origin by a legislative act. However, the national court examining an action against the rejection of a request for international protection must, in its examination of that act’s lawfulness, have at its disposal the sources of information on which that designation is based. The mere fact that a third country is designated as a safe country of origin by a legislative act cannot have the effect of shielding it from a review of legality without depriving the directive of all practical effect. The legislative act implements EU law and must ensure compliance with the substantive and procedural safeguards afforded to applicants for international protection by EU law. 

Where the legislature has not disclosed those sources of information, the competent judicial authority may review the lawfulness of such a designation on the basis of sources of information which it has itself gathered from among those referred to in the directive. 

As for the possibility of designating a third country as a safe country of origin when it is not safe for certain categories of persons, Advocate General Richard de la Tour considers that the Directive does not preclude a Member State from conferring the status of safe country of origin on a third country, while identifying limited categories of persons likely to be at risk of persecution or serious harm in that country. That is possible only if, first, the legal and political situation of that country is that of a democratic system in which the general population enjoys lasting protection against such risks and, second, the Member State concerned expressly excludes those categories of persons from the application of the safe country of origin concept and the associated presumption of safety.