“Because of this incident, it is clear that we need to make more efforts to further strengthen our borders in critical areas,” U. von der Leyen wrote in a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The text of the letter was seen by the news agency AFP.
“The protection of all our external borders is a shared European responsibility,” warned U. von der Leyen and urged to “closely monitor the situation and, if necessary, use physical barriers.”
U. von der Leyen praised P. Sanchez for his quick response to the crisis, during which tens of thousands of people from Morocco flooded into Ceuta. Almost all of these people have already returned to Morocco.
However, unprecedented images seen in Ceuta caused great tension among the 27 European Union (EU) member states, and Italy and Denmark, which take a particularly strict stance on migration issues, even called for Spain’s participation in the Schengen free movement area to be suspended.
Madrid firmly rejected this idea, calling it a selfish proposal and legally impossible under EU rules in any case, and called for urgent EU interior ministers’ talks to prepare a further action plan.
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Tuesday’s scheduled video conference will be an opportunity to learn from this incident in Ceuta, noted U. von der Leyen, warning that the challenges of illegal immigration require “a common European response, unified actions, and solidarity.”
The Commission President called on the EU to “double efforts” in five areas: primarily cooperation with partner countries to prevent illegal migration, strengthening external borders, implementing early warning systems, dismantling smuggling networks, and strengthening migrant return processes.
U. von der Leyen called the meeting scheduled for Tuesday a first step and noted that she expects leaders to discuss this issue at the next summit, currently planned for October.
In recent months, the EU has significantly tightened migration rules and, among other things, allowed member states to send persons who have not been granted asylum to so-called “return centers” located outside the Union’s borders.
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