Albares calls for EU “solidarity” in Ceuta, as “Spain showed to Italy and Denmark”

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called on Wednesday for the European Union’s “solidarity” in the face of the Ceuta migration crisis. He recalled that Spain showed solidarity with two of the countries that have taken the toughest stance since the massive influx of migrants into the autonomous city: with Italy in 2023, “when they were overwhelmed by irregular migrants,” and with Denmark, which last January faced “completely unacceptable pressure” from the US against “its territorial integrity in Greenland.” “Spain has always been a European partner that has given not only its political support and solidarity to every member of the European Union and to every country in Europe, but also with concrete actions, with troops, with funds, by welcoming refugees from Ukraine since the beginning of the war,” Albares told the press before participating in the Informal Meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers (Gymnich format), within the framework of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU, in Newtownmountkennedy, Ireland. “We did it again yesterday, giving our support and solidarity to Germany (for the Russian hybrid attacks against Leipzig airport); we did it in 2021, when Belarus used a hybrid threat and migration against many of the European Union’s border countries; and we did it in 2022, showing our full support and solidarity to Ukraine,” he continued. He also recalled, “We did it in 2023 with Italy, with Lampedusa, when they were overwhelmed by irregular migrants, even taking in people from Italy to Spain; and we did it very recently with Denmark, when they overcame completely unacceptable pressure on their territorial integrity in Greenland.” The Italian government has suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain and introduced controls at airports and ports for travelers from our country after the massive influx of migrants to Ceuta. Furthermore, its Prime Minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, and the Prime Minister of Denmark, the social democrat Mette Frederiksen, recently published a joint statement linking “uncontrolled immigration” to crime and calling for the opening of deportation centers following the Ceuta crisis. “That is what Spain expects from its European partner when it comes to land borders in the south,” Albares warned. “The land borders in the south of the European Union are just as important as the borders in the north and west, and Spain’s land borders in Ceuta and Melilla are also the land borders of the southern European Union. We expect the same support and solidarity from all sides, from every country,” he insisted. According to Albares, what happened in Germany demonstrates that the EU is facing “many threats, many challenges, hybrid threats, and disinformation—a lot of disinformation in the case of Ceuta.” “There are many people outside the European Union who want to divide us, who want to impoverish us because they don’t want a strong European Union, and that is exactly what we need: a strong European Union,” he warned.

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