{"id":464309,"date":"2026-09-08T15:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/08\/ceuta-lappello-del-sindaco-vogliamo-uneuropa-piu-presente-nelle-nostre-frontiere\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:22:07","slug":"ceuta-the-mayors-appeal-we-want-europe-to-play-a-greater-role-at-our-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/08\/ceuta-the-mayors-appeal-we-want-europe-to-play-a-greater-role-at-our-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceuta: the mayor\u2019s appeal: \u201cWe want Europe to play a greater role at our borders\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cWe call on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European institutions to work together to ensure that Ceuta returns to normality as soon as possible.\u201d This was stated <\/a>today (8 September) by the mayor of Ceuta, Juan Jes\u00fas Vivas<\/strong>, who was visiting the European Parliament. Vivas was invited by the Chair of the European Parliament\u2019s LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) MEP (EPP) Javier Zarzalejos <\/strong>to outline the current situation in the Spanish exclave. Here, between 30 and 31 July, around 60,000 migrants from Morocco have entered the country<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Vivas, the mayor elected on the ticket of the centre-right Partido Popular, \u201cthe only possible way\u201d to return to normality is \u201cthe repatriation of all those who have arrived illegally and in large numbers.\u201d He has therefore called for \u201ca more visible European presence\u201d at \u201cour borders and in our towns,\u201d through \u201cFrontex,<\/strong> the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, and the European Asylum Agency.<\/strong><\/span>\u201d The mayor also aims to secure the \u201cfinancial support needed to carry out the infrastructure works required at the border,\u201d so that control of the border remains in the hands of Spain and Europe, \u201cand not a third country.\u201d <\/span> <\/p>\n

The Spaniard emphasised that there are two measures that could change the current situation. The first is \u201cthe European Union\u2019s explicit recognition of special treatment<\/strong>\u201d for Ceuta and Melilla, the other Spanish exclave located on Moroccan territory. \u201cWe must take into account the conditions, difficulties, limitations, and threats that exist,\u201d he reiterated. Secondly, he urged the adoption of \u201cthe European Pact on Migration and Asylum to their situation<\/strong>\u201d\u2014in particular, with regard to \u201cthe reception of unaccompanied minors\u201d\u2014when in fact the<\/span> new regulations<\/a> came into force on 12 June 2026 have been widely criticised<\/a> as they risk subjecting minors to accelerated procedures and identification at border checkpoints, with possible measures restricting personal freedom or administrative detention. From the point of view of political support, Vivas is hoping for a \u201ccategorical and unequivocal statement from the European Parliament, making it clear that our southern borders, the only two land borders that Europe has in Africa, are European<\/strong> <\/span>borders<\/strong>\u201d and that Ceuta will become a member of the European Committee of the Regions, given that it does not yet have a permanent seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/strong>, who did not explicitly <\/a>hold<\/a> Morocco responsible for the migration crisis, Vivas explicitly blamed him. For the mayor, this is \u201can absolutely unacceptable behaviour and a lack of respect, not only towards Ceuta or Spain, but towards the entire European Union.\u201d According to Vivas, his responsibility cannot be ruled out because \u201cit is impossible for a mobilisation of 80,000 people to take place without the Moroccan authorities being aware of it.\u201d There are also reportedly \u201cSpanish police reports which show, through images, some Moroccan customs officials directing people towards the border.\u201d Finally, \u201cthis is not the first time that Morocco has used border controls and migratory pressure to destabilise our cities, to jeopardise our integrity, and to overload our migrant reception services,\u201d he pointed out. <\/span>After expressing his sympathy for the victims of the crisis\u2014141 according to S\u00e1nchez\u2019s estimates last week\u2014<\/strong>the mayor concluded the press conference by stating: \u201cCeuta is a pressure cooker that could explode at any moment.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a visit to the European Parliament, the mayor called for the deployment of Frontex and the European Asylum Agency, as well as greater financial support from the EU institutions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":464267,"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":[25756,35423,35144,26671,35284,35631,25937,26205,35632,35426,35293,26735,27709,26870,27915],"class_list":["post-464309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","category-world-politics","tag-asilo-europeo","tag-ceuta","tag-committee-of-regions-en","tag-diritti-migranti","tag-emigrazione","tag-frontex-en-2","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-immigrazione-clandestina","tag-immigrazione-e-asilo","tag-melilla","tag-rights-minors-en","tag-pedro-sanchez-en","tag-spain-en","tag-unhcr-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464309","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=464309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464310,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464309\/revisions\/464310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}