Comparison of countries to be included in the common safe country of origin list

According to some observers, the ‘safe country of origin’ concept still bears a number of substantial conceptual and procedural risks. Criteria such as the number of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings finding violations, the Copenhagen criteria for EU accession or even the fact that a particular country is considered ‘safe’ by several Member States do not necessarily guarantee that the safety criteria in Annex I to the recast Asylum Procedures Directive are met. The Commission approached this issue by assessing the existence of human rights protection in the national legal orders.