Overview

• The Court of Justice of the EU held that member states’ safe-country designations must meet strict material criteria and be subject to judicial oversight to protect vulnerable asylum seekers.
• Italian judges had blocked nearly all migrant transfers to Albania since October 2024 and referred the issue to the EU’s top tribunal for clarification.
• Italy’s multimillion-euro detention facilities on the Adriatic, built for the offshore model, now stand largely empty as transfers remain suspended.
• Rome criticized the judgment as an intrusion on national migration prerogatives, while opposition leaders are calling for the immediate closure of the Albanian centers.
• The decision highlights a broader clash over member-state autonomy versus EU judicial authority in externalizing asylum processing policies.