Asylum Report 2025 - Executive summary

In the area of asylum procedures, activities by EU+ countries centred around three major areas: reducing the number of pending cases awaiting a decision, allocating capacity to arrange for the practical implementation of the new rules, and training staff on the new provisions. In addition, the European Commission made financial support available (such as the Technical Support Instrument (TSI)), the EUAA provided technical support and EU+ countries collaborated bilaterally to exchange expertise. As required by the Pact, they also allocated significant resources to develop national contingency plans for different scenarios, comprising indicators and thresholds for activating and deactivating specific response measures.

Capacity-building activities were tailored to the unique situation in asylum and reception in each country. Some countries continued to focus on organisational changes, staff recruitment and training activities for skills development. Several asylum authorities continued to revise or fine-tune internal procedures and update templates and decision drafts with the objective to increase the efficiency of their decision-making processes. To support high-quality and swift decision-making, EU+ countries updated specific country policies based on changes in countries of origin. Nonetheless, the volatile situation in several countries of origin impacted case processing, and at times asylum authorities suspended the processing of cases by nationals from certain countries of origin.

In 2025, EU+ countries issued almost 874,000 first instance decisions, which is the most since 2017. The increase was driven by a sharp climb in the number of rejections, mainly for citizens of countries with a low recognition rate (20% or lower). The most decisions were issued in Germany, followed by France and Spain. Pending cases at first instance decreased to 863,000 in 2025, from 986,000 in 2024 (approximately 13% decrease). While some EU+ countries ramped up first instance decision-making, the decline in pending cases was rather the result of fewer applications being lodged. Despite the drop in pending cases at first instance, more appeals overall implied a stable and high caseload at all instances.

With the European Commission highlighting the importance of cooperation with judicial bodies and strengthening them to prepare for the activation of the Pact rules, a number of EU+ countries invested in increasing capacity at second or higher instances.