PREVIEW
Madrid’s push for Frontex and greater EU integration of the North African enclaves could deepen the dispute with Morocco
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s demand for the country’s North African enclaves Ceuta and Melilla to join the European Union’s Customs Union risks inflaming diplomatic tensions with Rabat. He proposes giving them the status of overseas territories and seats in the Committee of the Regions, an EU institution which brings together local government representatives from across the bloc (Dispatches 3/8/26, Ceuta crisis exposes fault lines in EU migration strategy).
Sánchez made the claim during a defiant speech in Spain’s Congress of Deputies on 3 September in which he repeated that Morocco bore no responsibility for the mass border crossing on 30-31 July, instead blaming Russian and Israeli disinformation campaigns.
The Spanish premier has been damaged by the fallout from the border surge but playing the nationalist card on Ceuta and Melilla is risky. Rabat claims sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla and may feel emboldened by the support for its claim from some United States politicians close to President Donald J Trump (AC Vol 67 No 17, Mohammed VI faces a turnout test).
Sánchez has requested financial support from the EU, as well as a permanent mission for Frontex, the EU’s border control agency. He has also asked for a special mission for Europol, the EU’s police co-operation agency, to monitor irregular migration to Ceuta. The European Commission is considering the requests.
The EU has also been reluctant to criticise Morocco’s authorities. ‘Morocco is an important strategic partner’ on migration control, a Commission spokesman told journalists on 3 September, adding that EU officials had ‘stepped up co-operation' on migration and border control with Rabat.
The claim that Morocco was caught unawares by the border surge which saw more than 75,000 people cross from Morocco into Ceuta, has been dismissed by Ceuta's president Juan Jesús Vivas.
‘Is it possible to organise an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity from Morocco without Morocco knowing about it? Is it possible to organise it without Morocco being behind it? No one with common sense can make sense of these explanations,’ Vivas said in an interview on Spanish TV.
Though Sánchez described the returns operation which saw around 70,000 people returned to Morocco as ‘one of the fastest return processes ever carried out in Europe’s recent history’, some 5,000 remain in Ceuta, with hopes of applying for asylum to the EU.
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