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Leaders from 22 European Union nations have called for an emergency meeting to discuss the bloc’s response to the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa this week.
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In the letter, which sources tell Euronews was initiated by Italy and Denmark, member states called for “an extraordinary videoconference of the Ministers of the Interior,” describing it as a “matter of urgency.”
While Madrid says that almost all of the roughly 50,000 migrants who crossed into Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday have been returned, the EU leaders said they reserved “serious” concerns over the situation.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and Luxembourg PM Luc Frieden did not sign the letter, which was addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, and Micheál Martin, the prime minister of Ireland. Ireland took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union in July.
The 22 leaders said the meeting should be used to form a “common assessment of the situation” in Ceuta and to reach an “agreement on a coordinated European response.”
“We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalisation of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible,” the signatories said, adding that they would consider “any necessary measures” to address such risks, “including through reinforcing or reintroducing temporary internal border controls.”
“Such a perception would encourage further attempts, undermine confidence in our common migration policy and have repercussions for all Member States,” the letter continues.
It also pointed to the Spanish government’s move to grant legal status to some unauthorised migrants as a “pull factor” that may have sparked the crisis – something Madrid has challenged.
Sánchez hits out at EU
It came as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused some EU states of a “rather asymmetric” response to the crisis.
“Most have shown us their support and solidarity, and have offered their assistance,” Sánchez wrote in his own letter to von der Leyen on Saturday.
“Others, however, have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area,” he continued, in an apparent reference to calls from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration to suspend its visa-free Schengen travel arrangement with Spain.