Von der Leyen defends Sánchez on the Ceuta crisis and calls for stronger European borders

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking to defuse the diplomatic crisis triggered by the arrival of around 60,000 migrants in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the North African coast. She has defended the Spanish government’s handling of the emergency under Pedro Sánchez while renewing calls to strengthen the European Union’s migration policy.

In a letter sent on 3 August to the Spanish prime minister, von der Leyen acknowledged that the Spanish and Moroccan authorities managed the situation “efficiently and effectively,” preventing further irregular movements towards mainland Spain and the rest of Europe. According to the Commission president, Madrid’s intervention was decisive in stopping the crisis from worsening and in averting “the tragic and unnecessary loss of further human lives.”

Her statement follows a period of sharp tension among member states. The governments of Italy and Denmark had heavily criticised Spain’s response and, more broadly, the Sánchez government’s approach to migration flows. “Solidarity and empathy are optional. Respect for the European Treaties and for the data is not,” the Spanish prime minister had replied, before citing Frontex figures on irregular entries into Mediterranean European countries over the past five years. Those figures show Italy, the Balkans and Greece facing far greater pressure than Madrid.

Ceuta regains cautious calm after unprecedented migrant surge, but European rifts deepen

The debate intensified after a letter signed by 22 European leaders and addressed to the Commission president called on Spain to improve management of the EU’s external border. In the document, the governments directly questioned the Spanish government’s migration policy, which they regarded as too open in light of the need to control irregular entries.

While defending Spain’s handling of the crisis, von der Leyen used the episode to push for a further strengthening of European migration policy. In her view, the events demonstrate the need to intensify controls in the most vulnerable sections of the Union’s external borders through more comprehensive monitoring and, where deemed necessary, the use of physical barriers.

Physical barriers have gradually returned to the centre of the European political debate as a possible tool for containing migratory flows, even though migration is a structural phenomenon that is difficult to address through territorial control measures alone. In public opinion, the use of barriers often evokes the idea of a “Fortress Europe,” a vision that sits uneasily with the concept of a Union open to international protection and respectful of the right to asylum.

At the same time, border reinforcement and priority given to returns – including through greater cooperation with third countries – form central elements of the strategy promoted by the European right. In some cases this approach overlaps with the rhetoric of more radical movements that advocate “remigration,” meaning the forced or incentivised return of people of foreign origin to their countries of origin.

Von der Leyen set out five priorities for the future: closer cooperation with local authorities, strengthening of the EU’s external borders, the development of early-warning systems, the fight against criminal networks that organise migrant smuggling, and faster return procedures for those who have no right to remain. She also defended the current European framework, arguing that the policies adopted in recent years have delivered results. According to data cited in the letter, irregular arrivals to Europe have fallen by 55% over the past two years and by 37% since the beginning of this year.

A central element of the crisis also concerns relations with Morocco, a country of origin or transit for many of the migrants who reached Ceuta. Von der Leyen described Rabat as a “strategic partner” of the European Union, particularly in the fight against human trafficking and irregular migration. At the same time, however, she issued a warning: the European Union will not accept migration being used as a tool of political pressure against a member state.

Although the Pact on Migration and Asylum – which European governments enthusiastically welcomed as a replacement for the Dublin Regulation – officially entered into force only a little more than a month and a half ago, the European Union still appears to be in serious difficulty on the issue.

As Sánchez pointed out, the solidarity that is supposed to be a foundational value of the Union and around which the entire new Pact revolves has not been demonstrated in any way during the recent Ceuta crisis. The fact that migration remains a shared competence between Brussels and the member states continues to be a source of fragility, making it harder to implement a genuinely common response and raising questions about the Union’s ability to turn political commitments into effective instruments for managing emergencies.

EU interior ministers will meet online later today to discuss this latest crisis, while the Commission has proposed that a strategic discussion among European leaders on migration take place at the next European Council meeting in October.

The article in Italian by EUalive’s partner FocusEurope.it can be found here.

Caption: A handout photo made available by the Spanish Prime Minister’s Office shows Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as he speaks at a press conference in Ceuta, Spain, 31 July 2026. Sanchez traveled to the autonomous city following the arrival of thousands of migrants from Morocco. EPA/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa/Moncloa