{"id":463905,"date":"2026-09-03T14:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/03\/ceuta-sanchez-nessuna-prova-di-responsabilita-del-marocco-mancata-la-solidarieta-ue\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:13:17","slug":"ceuta-sanchez-no-proof-of-moroccos-responsibility-eu-solidarity-lacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/03\/ceuta-sanchez-no-proof-of-moroccos-responsibility-eu-solidarity-lacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceuta, S\u00e1nchez: “No proof of Morocco\u2019s responsibility; EU solidarity lacking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cThe European Commission did not set the example of solidarity<\/a> that I believe all Spaniards were expecting at that time,\u201d said<\/a> the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>, during a plenary session of the Congreso de los Diputados, the Spanish Parliament, today (3 September)<\/strong>. On the contrary, \u201cwe maintain that the European Union is founded on that value,\u201d whether we are talking about \u201cLampedusa, Greenland, the Canary Islands or the autonomous city of Ceuta.\u201d  S\u00e1nchez was invited to <\/a> \u201creport on the extremely serious situation\u201d experienced by the Spanish exclave<\/strong> \u2013 where, between 30 and 31 July, around 60,000 migrants from Morocco entered the country – <\/a>\u201cdue to the increase in illegal entries\u201d into the territory \u2013 as well as to explain the \u201cmeasures he intends to take to ensure the integrity of Spain\u2019s borders and those of the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spanish Prime Minister emphasised that his government had not received any extraordinary alerts or warnings in the days leading up to the episode<\/strong><\/span>, but that many media outlets had reported that \u201cFrontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, had issued a warning a month in advance,\u201d a statement that was \u201cwidely picked up by those keen to spread this misinformation.\u201d In reality, \u201cwhat Frontex did was produce a routine report indicating that the migration route in question was more passable and detailing the detections recorded during the quarter\u201d and \u201cit had not foreseen anything remotely similar to what happened on 30 and 31 July,\u201d<\/strong> the Prime Minister explained. \u201cWe have examined all the reports, all the messages, and verbal communications from the security forces and agencies, including from our National Intelligence Centre, which were forwarded both to political authorities and to the government delegation of the Autonomous City of Ceuta during those days, and I can assure you that none of them went beyond describing the data, or routine alerts, and that no one foresaw either the scale or the likelihood of what ultimately occurred,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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Regarding the topic of disinformation<\/a>, namely the campaign of fake and manipulated news spread online, such as the viral videos claiming that entering Ceuta was very easy and that migrants could not be repatriated, <\/span>S\u00e0nchez explained that \u201cthe European External Action Service, under the auspices of the European Commission, has documented the involvement of accounts and publications linked to Russian and pro-Israeli media ecosystems, which have unfortunately also been joined by certain figures from the international far right.<\/strong>\u201d  S\u00e0nchez stresses this point to highlight that the Spanish far right had \u201cexploited the tragedy to stir up fear and hatred,\u201d just as it had \u201cduring the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d According to the Prime Minister, this demonstrates \u201cyet another example of the treacherous patriotism of these political forces, which always attack Spain when it is in difficulty,\u201d he stated.<\/div>\n

 It remains unclear who is responsible for the incident, nor has it been possible to identify the individuals who used the so-called \u201csubtle indicators of coordination in text messages\u201d to urge people to flock to the exclave. \u201cTo date, no one \u2013 not a single person \u2013 has been able to establish whether these attacks were in fact orchestrated by social media accounts linked to Moroccan social protest movements, or to the states of Morocco, Russia, or Israel<\/strong>\u201d, he pointed out. This \u201chypothesis has been ruled out by our intelligence services for the time being,\u201d because \u201cthis is the information we have at our disposal at the moment.\u201d What seems certain, however, is \u201cthat organised crime groups and traders have taken advantage of the situation, fuelling it, to sell goods and services related to assisting people at the border crossing\u201d.
 But relations with Morocco will change. \u201cWe are reviewing all the alert coordination mechanisms we share with the Moroccan state\u201d and \u201cwe will put in place additional safeguards to ensure that the situation we experienced on 30 July does not happen again,\u201d the Prime Minister stressed. Madrid will continue \u201cto cooperate with Morocco\u201d and to maintain \u201cgood neighbourly relations.\u201d However, it is \u201cclear\u201d that, following the events in Ceuta, \u201cthis relationship must be different,\u201d he said.
Despite his harsh words directed at Brussels and the EU-27<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cwe have not seen the example of solidarity from Europe that we all expected\u201d \u2013 the Spanish Prime Minister has his sights set on the European dimension. For this reason, he announced that he would ask Brussels to \u201crecognise its status as an <\/strong>outermost region<\/strong><\/a>\u201d for Ceuta<\/strong> \u2013 a special legal status reserved for certain territories that are geographically distant from the European continent but form an integral part of the EU. He argues that this entails \u201cnumerous advantages and is fundamental to its regional identity.\u201d The aim is to ensure a \u201cgreater integration in the European Union<\/a>\u201d and to make Brussels understand \u201cthat these territories do not represent a border issue to be passively endured.\u201d \u201cThese are not the only two land borders that Europe and Spain have in Africa, but an integral part of Europe\u2019s past and future, which must be recognised and treated as such,\u201d he said.
 Meanwhile, from Brussels, the European Commission confirmed that it has received \u201crequests from the Spanish authorities \u2013 not today, but previously \u2013 for both emergency funding and support from agencies\u201d such as Frontex to ensure a presence in Ceuta, and that it is \u201cprioritising the assessment of these requests.\u201d However, \u201cto complete our final assessment, there are still some important outstanding issues to which the Spanish authorities must first provide answers,\u201d explained the EU Commission spokesperson, Markus Lammert<\/strong>. \u201cLet me reiterate that, from the very outset, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has emphasised that we are ready to strengthen, if necessary, Frontex\u2019s presence in Ceuta and in other parts of the external borders,\u201d spokesperson Paula Pinho<\/strong> noted.
Finally, regarding the future of migrants, the government is reportedly speeding up repatriation and transfer procedures \u201cto minimise the time migrants have to spend in the autonomous city of Ceuta, whilst always complying with the law,\u201d explicitly rejecting summary expulsions and explaining the procedure on a case-by-case basis. However, no figures have been provided on the number of migrants still present in Ceuta, nor has any distinction been made between those who will be repatriated and those who will be transferred to the mainland.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking in the Spanish Parliament, the Prime Minister confirmed that his government had not received any alerts or extraordinary warnings in the days leading up to the event: \u201cI can assure you that no report went beyond a description of the data or a routine warning, and that no one foresaw either the scale or the likelihood of what ultimately happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":463848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788,25707],"tags":[25871,25890,35423,31280,35144,35284,28906,28051,35438,27664,27709,27947,26870],"class_list":["post-463905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-world-politics","tag-asilo-europeo","tag-bruxelles-en-3","tag-ceuta","tag-diritti-migranti","tag-service-european-action-external-en","tag-european-right-en","tag-federazione-russa","tag-morocco-en","tag-pedro-sanchez-en","tag-destra-en","tag-spain-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463906,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463905\/revisions\/463906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}