Ceuta, EU: "Crisis resolved, external border test passed."

The Ceuta migration crisis was a "test" for European resilience and the solidity of the EU's external border. And, according to Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, the EU "passed" this test. After five days of disputes between member states, the Irish rotating presidency managed to stem an August crisis by convening a videoconference meeting of interior ministers at the leaders' request. This crisis exposed the deep divisions within the EU, especially on a politically sensitive issue like migration.  

The images of tens of thousands of young Moroccans swimming across the border to the Spanish city on the North African coast sent shockwaves through the entire EU, including the Commission. President Ursula von der Leyen, during similar previous migration crises, had traveled to express solidarity with European governments facing hybrid attacks, in which migration was used as a weapon.  

In March 2020, while Lombardy was in lockdown due to Covid, von der Leyen stood at the Greek-Turkish border, standing before migrants sent on buses from Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey, to declare that Greece was the "aspida," Europe's shield, alongside Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (EPP). On September 17, 2023, with Giorgia Meloni (ECR), she visited Lampedusa, at the heart of a serious migration crisis. On August 31, 2025, she was at the border between Poland and Belarus, alongside Prime Minister Donald Tusk (EPP). 

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This time, faced with the influx of tens of thousands of Moroccan citizens, and others, who, according to multiple testimonies, were encouraged to go to Ceuta by the authorities in Rabat, she limited herself to tweeting that the images were "unacceptable," without any hint of solidarity with the Spain of the socialist Pedro Sanchez. 

It's well known that the Partido Popular holds significant sway within the EPP. And it's well known that the Spanish People's Party hasn't yet come to terms with the political defeat inflicted on them by Pedro Sánchez in the last general election, thanks in part to Vox's disappointing performance. This combination of factors frequently leads to the spillover of Spain's highly conflicted domestic politics into the European Union.  

Former High Representative Josep Borrell, European solidarity "died" in Ceuta, as Spain suffered a "hybrid attack" and partner countries, rather than helping, criticized it. Interior ministers, meeting today via video conference, expressed "strong solidarity" with Spain, offered "condolences" for the dozens of people who died trying to reach Ceuta, and acknowledged that EU communication, especially in times of crisis, should be more "coherent."
 

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi explained that the border controls introduced by Italy are not a measure "against Spain," with whom he expressed "solidarity." He then recalled that in 2023, Italy had to shoulder the Lampedusa crisis, while other countries were only concerned with preventing "secondary movements." Border controls, Commissioner Brunner emphasized, must be "temporary" and justified: the Commission will conduct an "evaluation," he said, expressing understanding for the decision taken by the Italian authorities, "because people were concerned." 

However, he added, "now the situation has changed," because it is now clear that the external border of the Schengen area has not been violated by a single migrant who entered Ceuta, given that to fly or sail from the exclave to Spain one must cross the border, as if arriving from Senegal.  

The letter from the 22 heads of state and government last Saturday, criticizing Spanish policies, was signed neither by French President Emmanuel Macron (Renew) nor by Portuguese President Luis Montenegro (EPP). France and Portugal are the only two countries with a land border with Spain and are therefore, in theory, the most exposed to potential secondary movements of migrants arriving in Ceuta, many of whom have since returned. 

Brunner also ruled out any "direct link" between Spain's migrant regularizations and the Ceuta migration crisis. This measure had already been criticized during the June European Council, to which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded by pointing out that it is an exclusively national competence and that the Spanish economy needs personnel.  

Commissioner Brunner, while acknowledging that this is a national responsibility and that most of those regularized are Latin American, and therefore culturally and linguistically similar to the Spanish, made it clear that the Commission did not like the measure at all: "It's not a good sign, not at all," he said.  

The problem, Brunner explained, is that the powerful images of Ceuta have obscured the progress the EU has made so far in controlling irregular immigration. "Illegal immigration," he claimed, "has decreased by 55% in the last two years and by almost 40% since the beginning of the year. This has resulted in just over 49 people crossing the European Union's external borders illegally."  

This, Brunner explained, is roughly "the same number of people who arrived on the Greek islands alone in a single week in October 2015." This decline in arrivals also leads, he noted, to "a decline in asylum applications across the European Union." In Germany, for example, "numbers have also decreased by more than a third this year. Sweden, for example, registered 8.400 applications last year. This is the lowest figure in 40 years. Denmark registered 1.800 by the end of November. This is also a historic low."  

For Brunner, "by any measure, Europe hasn't had such a high level of control over illegal immigration in decades. But, obviously, the events in Ceuta—and this is quite clear—prove that dramatic images carry more weight than the best statistics."
 

The Commissioner then defined the repatriation hubs located in safe third countries that "five or six countries" want to establish as "legitimate" under EU law, also as a deterrent to departures. Minister Piantedosi explicitly addressed these issues, calling for overcoming "old taboos." He also urged consideration of the possibility, now provided for under EU law, of completing asylum procedures in safe third countries. For Brunner, however, the Ceuta crisis is now "resolved." 

The latent rift among European Socialists is not. The EU's second-largest political family includes three current heads of state and government: Spain's Pedro Sánchez, Denmark's Mette Frederiksen, and Malta's Robert Abela. The latter two signed the letter of the 22 heads of state and government on Saturday, criticizing their comrade Sánchez's Spanish policies. It remains to be seen when the S&D group and the PES return from vacation whether this rift has had any visible effects.  

Furthermore, no one from the EU has publicly spoken out against Morocco, the country that controls the migration pipeline to the Iberian Peninsula and, even more so, as has been seen, to the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. "The integrity of the Schengen area has been preserved," Brunner said, "and this is the result of close and constant cooperation between Spain, Morocco, and the Commission in recent days. I want to thank Spain and the Ceuta administration for restoring order and for working closely with Morocco to ensure a rapid return to normality."  

The North African monarchy has a functioning state and has already demonstrated in the past that it can control migrant flows toward Spanish enclaves at will. Rabat has consolidated relations with the EU and is a very important country, as evidenced by some of the elements emerging from the Belgian investigation into the so-called Qatargate scandal. Many in Brussels believe that, had it not been for the World Cup in Qatar, which attracted international media attention, the investigation would have been called differently.  

(Adnkronos)