Finland’s interior minister Mari Rantanen said the country has no present need to restore checks on travellers arriving from Spain after Spanish authorities brought a mass border crossing in Ceuta under control. She defended her earlier support for action against Spain and denied that her response had been rushed.
Rantanen spoke on Tuesday after an informal video meeting of interior ministers from European Union and Schengen countries.
The meeting focused on the arrival of tens of thousands of people from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the North African coast.
Rantanen said Spain received full support from every member state during the talks.
“Support and solidarity were shown to Spain,” she told reporters after the meeting.
Spain told the ministers that 72,000 people had crossed into Ceuta from Morocco during the crisis and that 70,000 had returned to the Moroccan side. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the events had not compromised the Schengen area and that authorities were processing the people who remained.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a letter to EU leaders that Spain had regained full control of the border within 48 hours, returned almost all those who entered without permission and stopped them from travelling to mainland Europe.
The change in conditions led Rantanen to step back from her earlier support for measures linked to Spain’s place in the Schengen area.
On Friday, she backed a proposal from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to suspend Spain’s participation in Schengen arrangements or introduce internal border controls linked to travel from Spain.
Rantanen also ordered officials in Finland to begin preparations for the possible restoration of checks on traffic arriving from Spain.
She said on Tuesday that the work amounted to a preparedness measure rather than a decision to begin checks.
“It is a precautionary measure to begin preparations,” she said. “The decision-making process is then much faster if such measures are needed.”
She said officials would assess whether public order or national security required border controls.
“The situation in Ceuta has now stabilised, but Europe must be ready,” she said.
No minister at Tuesday’s meeting asked the European Commission to take steps towards internal border controls, according to Rantanen.
She also acknowledged that a country cannot simply be removed from the Schengen area at the demand of another member state.
A Schengen member state has the right to restore checks at its own internal borders under defined conditions. EU-level procedures also provide a route for coordinated action when officials identify a threat to public policy or internal security.
Rantanen’s comments on Friday led to disagreement inside Finland’s governing coalition.
Education Minister and Swedish People’s Party leader Anders Adlercreutz said her position did not represent the government’s line.
Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen of the National Coalition Party also told Ilta-Sanomat that the proposal was not Finland’s official policy.
Rantanen said she had not discussed her statement with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo before making it.
Asked whether the comments represented government policy or the position of the Finns Party, she said they reflected her judgement as Finland’s interior minister.
“Those were the words and thoughts of Finland’s interior minister,” she said.
“I do not feel that the reaction was rushed,” she said. “We all saw what happened in Ceuta. It would be strange if the minister responsible for border security did not react in any way.”
Rantanen rejected claims that the dispute had created a split inside the coalition.
“The situation within the government is stable,” she said. “I do not see the conflict that has been constructed around this.”
She said Finland remained ready to support Spain and other member states facing pressure at the EU’s external borders when they requested help.
Orpo has earlier joined 21 other EU leaders in signing a letter that criticised parts of Spain’s migration policy.
Finland has not introduced checks on travellers from Spain.
HT