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Decision

Application of the ‘safe third country’ concept

Effect
Negotiating mandate approved
Result
384 for · 237 against · 31 abstained roll call
Date
17 December 2025, 12:22
Kind
New EU law · 1st reading
More facts (10)
Margin
by a clear majority
Counts are for
the decision to open negotiations with the Council
Text
Report A-10-2025-0255
Dossier
2025/0132(COD)
Source
Committee report by Lena Düpont
Topics
Migration & asylum Assigned by a model, not checked by hand.
Votes
1 vote · 1 roll call
Requested by
Greens (1 roll call) · S&D (1 roll call)
Sitting
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Final vote
182896
More
Cite this page Roll-call results (EP) (opens the official site)
Link to this page
Votes on this decision
Members on the final vote

Result

The final vote and what it means for this kind of decision.

Final vote: 384 for, 237 against, 31 abstained (roll call).

Negotiating mandate approved.

Parliament let its committee open negotiations with the Council on the basis of the committee’s report.

Backed by EPP, ECR, Patriots and ESN; opposed by The Left, Greens, S&D and Renew.

Groups

Members' votes, each counted in the group they belonged to on the day. No vote: in office that day, no position recorded. Majority line: the most common position. Clear line: a position with at least two thirds of the group's votes (at least 10 members voting), otherwise Divided. Cohesion: Agreement Index, 0 = evenly split, 1 = all voted the same (method).
GroupForAgainstAbst.No voteMajority lineClear lineCohesionBar
The LeftFor 0Against 42Abst. 0No vote 4 of 46Majority line AgainstClear line Against Cohesion 1.00
GreensFor 0Against 46Abst. 2No vote 5 of 53Majority line AgainstClear line Against Cohesion 0.94
S&DFor 12Against 106Abst. 4No vote 14 of 136Majority line AgainstClear line Against Cohesion 0.80
RenewFor 11Against 31Abst. 23No vote 10 of 75Majority line AgainstClear line Divided Cohesion 0.22
EPPFor 164Against 7Abst. 1No vote 16 of 188Majority line ForClear line For Cohesion 0.93
ECRFor 75Against 0Abst. 0No vote 4 of 79Majority line ForClear line For Cohesion 1.00
PatriotsFor 78Against 0Abst. 0No vote 7 of 85Majority line ForClear line For Cohesion 1.00
ESNFor 24Against 0Abst. 0No vote 3 of 27Majority line ForClear line For Cohesion 1.00
No groupFor 20Against 5Abst. 1No vote 4 of 30Majority line —Clear line No line Cohesion —

Members who changed group are counted in the group of the day: Branko GRIMS changed group, Elena YONCHEVA changed group, Elisabetta GUALMINI changed group, Ewa ZAJĄCZKOWSKA-HERNIK changed group, Jessika VAN LEEUWEN changed group, Laurent CASTILLO changed group, Lukas SIEPER changed group, Nikola BARTŮŠEK changed group, Nikolas FARANTOURIS changed group, Pina PICIERNO changed group, Roberto VANNACCI changed group, Sander SMIT changed group, Taner KABILOV changed group.

Voted against their group, 26

Members who voted otherwise than a clear line (at least two thirds of the votes cast, at least 10 members voting) of the group they sat in that day. A group without a clear line is divided and not counted.

Countries

The final vote by national delegation.

Votes by country (27 delegations)
Members' votes by country. No vote: in office that day, no position recorded. Cohesion: Agreement Index of the delegation, 0 = evenly split, 1 = all the same; it reflects the mix of groups (method).
CountryForAgainstAbst.No voteCohesion
Austria116210.37
Belgium78430.13
Bulgaria85040.42
Cyprus5100—
Czechia191010.93
Germany5330580.40
Denmark86010.36
Estonia3301—
Spain2825070.29
Finland56220.19
France4031550.29
Greece1010010.25
Croatia74010.45
Hungary112080.77
Ireland38030.59
Italy4133020.33
Lithuania73100.45
Luxembourg3300—
Latvia8010—
Malta5001—
Netherlands1513030.30
Poland454040.88
Portugal215130.75
Romania149370.31
Sweden137010.47
Slovenia5310—
Slovakia81600.30

Members

Each member’s recorded position on the final roll call, in the group they sat in that day. Filter by country, group, position or name.

Show all 652 members

Debate speakers and how they voted

Members who spoke in the plenary debate on the dossier. Speeches: how many times they took the floor. Final vote: their recorded position on this decision's final roll call.
MemberGroupSpeechesSpokeFinal vote
Esteban GONZÁLEZ PONS SpainEPPSpeeches110 Feb 2026 (verbatim report, official site) For
Pina PICIERNO changed group ItalyRenewSpeeches117 Dec 2025 (verbatim report, official site) Against

All votes on this decision, 1

In voting order. Result: for–against–abstained (a show of hands has no count). Requested by: the groups that asked for a roll call, a split vote or a separate vote.
No.VoteRecordedResultRequested by
1Decision to open negotiations with the Council Final vote A10-0255/2025 – Lena Düpont – Decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations Roll call384 for, 237 against, 31 abstained Adopted

Roll calls requested by Greens, S&D.

Text

The text voted on.

Report A-10-2025-0255

AI: What this vote decides Written by AI from the official text — check the source

Parliament adopted its position on a proposed EU law amending the rules on the 'safe third country' concept in asylum procedures.

The law aims to make the concept's application more flexible and consistent across member states, including by making the 'connection' requirement optional and changing appeal rules.

Parliament asks the Commission to refer the matter back if it substantially amends its proposal.

Read the text · Report a problem

AI: The text in short Written by AI from the official text — check the source

Parliament's amended version of the proposed regulation amending Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 on the 'safe third country' concept. It makes the connection criterion optional, allows application based on transit or agreements, and refines rules on unaccompanied minors and absconding.

Read the text · Report a problem

Dossier

Where the dossier stands and its other decisions in plenary.

2025/0132(COD) · Ordinary legislative procedure

Amending Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 as regards the application of the ‘safe third country’ concept

Completed: published in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026 and now EU law.

Show the 6 steps of the dossier
  1. Referred to committee · 10 July 2025 (done)
  2. Committee work · Report adopted 3 December 2025 (done)
  3. Tabled for plenary · 9 December 2025 (done)
  4. Negotiations with the Council · Deal approved in committee 27 January 2026 (done)
  5. Plenary vote · Adopted 10 February 2026 (done)
  6. Published as law · 26 February 2026 (done)

Lead committee: LIBE · Rapporteur: Lena DÜPONT (EPP)

Other decisions on this dossier

Connections

What this decision touches: the procedural chain, the same text, running issues, votes that split the chamber the same way.

Show 19 connections: Other decisions on this dossier · Running issue: Migration and asylum pact · Running issue: Irregular migration to EU · Other decisions of the part-session on LIBE dossiers · Final votes that split the chamber the same way

Other decisions on this dossier

See all: Other decisions on this dossier

Running issue: Migration and asylum pact

Running issue: Irregular migration to EU

Other decisions of the part-session on LIBE dossiers

See all: Other decisions of the part-session on LIBE dossiers

Final votes that split the chamber the same way

Sources & citation

Where the facts on this page come from, and how to cite it.

Permalink
https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/decisions/2025-12-17/1
Official sources
Data source
Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved
25 September 2026

Cite as

European Parliament (2025). “Application of the ‘safe third country’ concept”. Decision, 17 December 2025. votingId 182896, document A-10-2025-0255, reference 2025/0132(COD). EU Parl Watch Research. https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/decisions/2025-12-17/1 (retrieved 25 September 2026). Official sources: Roll-call votes, sitting of 17 December 2025 (European Parliament), https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PV-10-2025-12-17-RCV_EN.html; Results of votes, sitting of 17 December 2025 (European Parliament), https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PV-10-2025-12-17-VOT_EN.html. Data: EP Open Data API: decisions of the sitting MTG-PL-2025-12-17, https://data.europarl.europa.eu/api/v2/meetings/MTG-PL-2025-12-17/decisions?format=application%2Fld%2Bjson (CC BY 4.0).
BibTeX 
@misc{epw-decision-2025-12-17-1,
  author = {{European Parliament}},
  title = {{Application of the ‘safe third country’ concept}},
  year = {2025},
  date = {2025-12-17},
  howpublished = {\url{https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/decisions/2025-12-17/1}},
  url = {https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/decisions/2025-12-17/1},
  urldate = {2026-09-25},
  publisher = {EU Parl Watch Research},
  note = {Decision. votingId 182896, document A-10-2025-0255, reference 2025/0132(COD). Official source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PV-10-2025-12-17-RCV\_EN.html, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PV-10-2025-12-17-VOT\_EN.html. Data: EP Open Data API: decisions of the sitting MTG-PL-2025-12-17 (CC BY 4.0)}
}