{"id":67800,"date":"2026-08-08T13:19:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/67800\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:19:50","slug":"eu-ministers-close-ranks-behind-spain-after-ceuta-migration-crisis-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/67800\/","title":{"rendered":"EU ministers close ranks behind Spain after Ceuta migration crisis \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The meeting followed days of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/spain-ceuta-migration-crisis-pedro-sanchez-opposition-backlash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unusually public anger<\/a> at Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez. In a letter signed by 22 EU leaders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ceuta-crisis-22-eu-leaders-letter-spain-pedro-sanchez-migration-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">governments demanded tougher action<\/a> to stop irregular arrivals, while Italy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/ceuta-crisis-migration-france-spain-border-checks-schengen-unity-morocco\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended air and sea transit<\/a> with Spain over fears that migrants could move onward through the Schengen area. S\u00e1nchez hit back by urging his counterparts to show \u201cunderstanding\u201d rather than turn Spain into a scapegoat for a crisis on the EU\u2019s external border.<\/p>\n<p>By Tuesday, ministers were keen to close ranks. The EU\u2019s Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the influx had been \u201cinstrumentalized\u201d by smugglers and human traffickers, while French Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez said ministers had condemned efforts to use images of the crossings to divide the bloc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe divisions that we have heard over the weekend were not welcome and they were exploited by foreign countries,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez told reporters. \u201cBut what I heard this morning reassured me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>EU countries that had publicly called out Spain over its migration policies took a more conciliatory tone in the meeting, apparently appeased by the speed and effectiveness of Madrid\u2019s response to the crisis, three EU diplomats with knowledge of the meeting said. They were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential talks.<\/p>\n<p>Matteo Piantedosi, Italy\u2019s interior minister, praised Spain\u2019s efforts to control the unrest, the diplomats said. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/migration-crisis-spain-italy-clash-over-schengen-morocco-cueta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rome clashed with Madrid<\/a> on Friday, calling for Spain to be kicked out of the Schengen zone.<\/p>\n<p>Another diplomat referred to the past 24 hours of diplomacy as EU \u201ccouples counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The meeting followed days of unusually public anger at Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez. In a letter signed by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[191,8707,2262,16345,14001,3385,25879,203,2264,2124,17,16609],"class_list":["post-67800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-borders","tag-communications","tag-cooperation","tag-crisis","tag-intelligence","tag-ireland","tag-magnus-brunner","tag-migration","tag-morocco","tag-social-media","tag-spain","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}