Recital (7)

A country is granted candidate country status by the European Council through a unanimous decision, on the basis of an opinion from the Commission, drawn up following the country’s application for Union membership. With regard, in particular, to the political criteria for Union membership, the candidate countries were found to have advanced towards reaching the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities. It can, therefore, be concluded that those third countries that have been granted candidate country status should be considered as safe countries of origin within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 and should accordingly be designated as safe countries of origin at Union level. Those designations are without prejudice to any future decisions to be taken by the European Council or by the Council on the admission of candidate countries into the Union. However, due account should be taken of the fact that the situation in a candidate country could change to the extent that the designation of that country as a safe country of origin should no longer apply. Therefore, this Regulation should provide that the designation of a third country that has been granted candidate country status as a safe country of origin should no longer be applied where any of the following circumstances apply: there is a serious threat to a civilian’s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict in the third country; restrictive measures within the meaning of Title IV of Part Five of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) have been adopted in view of the third country’s actions affecting fundamental rights and freedoms that are relevant for the designation as a safe country of origin; or the Union-wide recognition rate pertaining to the applicants from the third country is higher than 20 % of the total number of decisions for that third country issued by the determining authority. Member States should not apply the concept of safe country of origin to applicants from a candidate country during the period in which the circumstances provided for by this Regulation persist.