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The Council settled its position on three EU laws to speed up and simplify the procedures for returning rejected asylum seekers and expedite and facilitate asylum processes.
The return regulation establishes common procedures for returns, obligations for the illegally staying third-country national to cooperate with migration authorities and tools for cooperation between member states. The EU will also draw up a list of safe countries of origin which will allow member states to deal with demands for international protection of persons coming from countries on that list in an expedited manner. And finally, the new regulation on the application of the safe third country concept will give more options to member states to make use of this concept in order to reject an asylum application as inadmissible and to examine possible third country cooperation in this regard.
The agreement between member states comes only six months after the European Council, on 26 June, encouraged to intensify work on efforts to facilitate, increase and accelerate returns and on the concepts of safe third countries and safe countries of origin.
The European asylum system is broken. Today the Council has delivered important answers. We will be able to gain control of migration to Europe and break the business model of human smugglers. And we will make sure more migrants with no right to stay in the EU actually are returned.
Rasmus Stoklund, Minister for Immigration and Integration of Denmark
The Council also reached a political agreement on the establishment of the annual solidarity pool for 2026. The solidarity pool is a main element of the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum and provides effective support to those member states that are under migratory pressure. The Pact, when it starts applying from 12 June 2026, will make the European asylum system more effective with clearer rules about the responsibility for dealing with asylum requests and solidarity between member states. The Pact will eventually contribute to reducing the migratory pressure on all member states.
During the working lunch ministers discussed strengthening the external borders of the Schengen area. They addressed persistent gaps and how to collectively tackle them as well as how to prepare for the new vulnerabilities that are emerging at the external borders.
Ministers also approved a roadmap for the roll-out of the EU’s interoperability architecture in 2027-2028. This interoperability architecture refers to the ongoing process of ensuring that the EU’s IT systems that guarantee our security within the Schengen area – by correctly identifying persons, detecting fraud and checking for security threats – are interconnected and that national authorities have seamless access.
With the entry/exit system for borders, the ETIAS travel authorisation system and the updated fingerprint database, Eurodac, having started operations in 2025 or being planned for 2026, the Council is now turning to the remaining elements of the common border and security IT architecture.
Ministers discussed the implications of malicious use of drones from the perspective of law enforcement authorities. They exchanged on appropriate law enforcement measures to address these challenges including possible EU actions. Such actions could be better coordination of anti-drone activities, harmonisation of standards of anti-drone systems and increasing funding in research and innovation.
The discussion showed that there is an urgent need to move forward quickly in order to respond to the ever-growing challenges posed by drones and to equip law enforcement agencies with the necessary capabilities.
In a restricted session ministers received the six-monthly threat assessment update on the current security challenges. The briefing was provided by the director-general of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) on behalf of the European domestic security and intelligence services.
Fighting organised crime
The presidency provided a summary report on the actions identified as priorities within the EU roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime since October 2023. The roadmap contains 17 short- and medium-term actions which served as the basis for member states’ actions during the Belgian, Hungarian, Polish and Danish presidencies.
The Commission presented two communications on 1) the new EU drugs strategy and on 2) an EU action plan against drug trafficking. Both communications have been presented by the Commission on 4 December 2025. They set out the EU’s response to the security, health, social and environmental challenges linked to the trafficking and use of illicit drugs.
The fight against drug trafficking and organised crime have been key priorities under the Danish presidency. It is crucial that we work together across the member states if we effectively want to combat these subversive elements. I really appreciate the constructive and fruitful discussions on these matters during today’s meeting.
Peter Hummelgaard, Minister for Justice of Denmark
Under other business the presidency gave a state of play of the developments during its term related to access to data for effective law enforcement and briefed ministers about the meeting of the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs which took place on 30-31 October in Sarajevo.
Poland gave an update on the security situation and follow-up on the visa issuance to Russian citizens and the upcoming Cyprus Presidency presented its work programme.
