EU summit after Ceuta: migration row ends with bare-bones conclusions
Two paragraphs instead of nine: EU leaders postponed their migration dispute. The only firm point is an emergency framework for crises like Ceuta. Italy and Spain end border checks.
Symbolic image · Photo: Fred Romero from Paris, France / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
At the first EU summit since the migration crisis in Spain's enclave of Ceuta, heads of state and government adopted only a brief text on migration in Brussels on Friday. According to the specialist service Agence Europe, the nine paragraphs in the drafts were cut to two, the second of which defers the debate to "forthcoming meetings". Denmark, Italy and Poland had demanded tougher language, including on so-called pull factors. Euronews and Agence Europe said this was indirectly aimed at Spain's plan to regularise around 600,000 undocumented people.
The only concrete measure is an emergency framework for "instrumentalised" migration crises announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said measures should come before the end of the year. French President Emmanuel Macron called the debate "bad", according to Euronews, and described Ceuta as a humanitarian tragedy and a hybrid attack. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, by contrast, accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of replacing his own population with migrants to stay in power.
On the sidelines, Sánchez and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni settled their dispute over reciprocal border checks. Both countries will let their measures expire on 22 October, and interior ministers are to explore other forms of cooperation next week. Behind the scenes, Agence Europe said, the outcome was seen as a win for Madrid, Paris and Luxembourg, which oppose so-called innovative solutions on migration. Spain faces an upcoming general election.