Brunner: “Spain under migratory pressure; rules call for solidarity”

Brussels – Spain was already a country facing migratory pressures, which is why it had been at the centre of solidarity mechanisms; however, in the face of the events in Ceuta, these have been set aside by everyone. The Commissioner for Home Affairs and Immigration, Magnus Brunner, finds himself responding to a Parliamentary question on the movements of asylum seekers between Algeria and the Balearic Islands, a migration issue in Spain that has nothing to do with recent events. In his response, however, Brunner ends up issuing a ‘j’accuse’ against all Member States which, instead of coming to Madrid’s aid, have chosen to put the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, with his back against the wall.

 “Following the Commission’s assessment covering the period July 2024 — June 2025, Spain was identified as a Member State under migratory pressure and is eligible to benefit from the Solidarity Pool agreed by the Council in December 2025,” notes the head of immigration on the von der Leyen team.

Brunner’s response refers to the situation a year ago.

Still, it arrived on 31 July 2026, coinciding with the arrival of thousands of migrants in the Spanish enclave on Moroccan territory, and provides a legal basis applicable to any form of migratory pressure, reaffirming the principle that a country facing migratory pressure must be assisted – something that did not happen due to political decisions and electoral expediency. In addition, for Brunner the parliamentary question is an opportunity to point out that “with the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, which entered into application on 12 June 2026, a permanent and flexible solidarity mechanism is in place.”
 Therefore, under the rules in force this year, a solidarity mechanism should have been triggered for Spain in response to the events in Ceuta, but this did not happen. Virtually all Member States chose to openly criticise the Madrid government’s decisions regarding the regularisation of migrants, rather than offering support to Mr Sánchez’s government, in what has amounted to a right-wing-led Europe lashing out at one of the last socialist governments currently in office. 

Much ado about nothing, really, given that in the end none of the thousands of people who entered Ceuta set foot on the European mainland. The almost hysterical response from European governments – clearly dictated by electoral considerations – is therefore indicative of a failure to assist, as well as of waves of unjustified panic, as in the case of the parliamentary question to which Mr Brunner  responded: “The Commission has no specific information on secondary movements from the Balearic Islands to other Member States.” In any case, therefore, the Spanish migration crisis remains a Spanish phenomenon.