Ireland is just one of five European Union nations not to sign an letter calling for an emergency meeting to discuss the bloc’s response to the sudden arrival of up to 60,000 migrants in the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa this week.
Twenty two EU leaders called for urgent talks, with the member states saying “an extraordinary videoconference of the Ministers of the Interior,” was needed as a “matter of urgency”. The letter was initiated by Italy and Denmark, according to Euro News.
However, Spain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal did not sign the letter.
The letter said a meeting should be used to form a “common assessment of the situation” in Ceuta and to reach an “agreement on a coordinated European response.”
“We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalisation of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible,” the leaders said, adding that “any necessary measures” should be considered to address the risks, “including through reinforcing or reintroducing temporary internal border controls.”
“Such a perception would encourage further attempts, undermine confidence in our common migration policy and have repercussions for all Member States,” the letter said.
It also pointedly referenced the Spanish government’s move to grant legal status to more than a million illegal immigrants as a “pull factor” that may have sparked the crisis – something Madrid has denied, blaming human traffickers for the crisis.
While Spain’s Socialist government has defended its policies, and argue that most of the migrants who crossed from Morocco have been returned, they faced severe criticism from other EU governments earlier this week – with Italy suspending free movement between both countries, and calling for Spain to be suspended gro.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and Luxembourg PM Luc Frieden did not sign the letter, which was addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, and Micheál Martin, the prime minister of Ireland, Euronews said.
This week, Italy has ordered a temporary reintroduction of sea and air borders with Spain in response to the arrival of more than 60,000 migrants in the Spanish North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla, suspending the Schengen agreement which facilitates free movement between both countries – and in 27 other European states.
And other EU countries are also expressing criticism and concern with Finnish Interior Minister claiming that Spain “has completely failed to protect the Schengen Area’s external border from infiltration”.
Announcing the suspension Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvin, said a meeting at the Interior Ministry chaired by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had come to a decision based on assessments by Italy’s Committee for Migration Analysis and Border Security.
“The Government has decided to temporarily suspend the free movement regime provided for by Schengen in maritime and air connections with Spain, reintroducing border controls,” Prime Minister Meloni wrote on X.