Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 is amended as follows:

Article 59 is amended as follows:

paragraph 5 is amended as follows:

point (b) is replaced by the following:

one of the following conditions is met:

there is a connection between the applicant and the third country concerned on the basis of which it would be reasonable for him or her to go to that country;

the applicant has transited through the third country concerned on the way to the Union; or

there is an agreement or an arrangement concluded between the Union, one or more Member States or one or more Member States and third countries, on the one hand, and the third country concerned, on the other hand, requiring the examination of the merits of any requests for effective protection made in the third country concerned by applicants covered by that agreement or arrangement.’

the following subparagraphs are added:

‘Where the Commission enters into negotiations for an agreement on behalf of the Union with a third country (“Union-level agreement”) with a view to concluding an agreement as referred to in the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), it shall take any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between the Member States and the same third country into account in the course of the negotiations, including the potential impact of the Union-level agreement on those bilateral or multilateral agreements and on the Member States’ cooperation with that third country in the field of migration.

An agreement concluded by the Union and a third country falling within the scope of the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), shall take precedence over any bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded between individual Member States and the same third country, in so far as their provisions are incompatible with those of that Union-level agreement.

A Member State shall, at an appropriate time, inform the relevant Member States of negotiations on an agreement or arrangement as referred to in the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), with a third country that shares a common border with those Member States.

Member States shall inform the Commission and the other Member States of any bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded in accordance with the first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), prior to their entry into force, or, where an agreement or arrangement is to be applied provisionally, before the beginning of its provisional application. The Commission and the other Member States shall also be informed of any subsequent changes to, or the termination of, such agreements or arrangements.’

in paragraph 6, the following sentence is added:

‘Member States shall not apply paragraph 5, first subparagraph, point (b)(iii), where the applicant is an unaccompanied minor.’

in paragraph 8, point (b) is replaced by the following:

provide him or her with a document informing the authorities of the third country in question, in the language of that country, that the application has not been examined in substance in the Union as a consequence of the application of the concept of safe third country, without prejudice to the application of different procedures for informing the authorities of the third country set out in agreements or arrangements already in place between the Union or that Member State and the third country concerned, as referred to in paragraph 5, first subparagraph, point (b)(iii).’

in Article 68(3), point (b) is replaced by the following:

a decision which rejects an application as inadmissible pursuant to Article 38(1), point (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e), or Article 38(2), except where the applicant is an unaccompanied minor subject to the border procedure.’.

REGULATION (EU) 2026/463 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 February 2026 amending Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 as regards the application of the concept of safe third country