EPP leader Manfred Weber called on Morocco to take back all irregular migrants who entered the Spanish exclave in July and strongly criticized Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s handling of the situation during a visit to the autonomous city.
European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber warned that Morocco could face “obvious consequences” if the border with the Spanish exclave of Ceuta could not be stabilized, raising the prospect of further “uncontrolled situations” following the arrival of around 80,000 irregular migrants at the end of July.
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Weber was the first senior EU figure to visit Ceuta since the crisis erupted, travelling alongside Spanish opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas.
The visit came amid growing public discontent and mounting pressure on Sánchez’s government over the presence of more than 3,000 people on the city’s streets. Madrid is struggling to complete the returns, while Moroccan authorities have so far stopped short of repatriating all of their nationals.
“If we cannot stabilize our borders, there will be obvious consequences. There is no question about it,” Weber said, referring to trade agreements, security cooperation and “other issues of great importance” in the relationship between the EU and Morocco. However, he did not specify what those consequences might entail.
Morocco is set to benefit from increased funding for border control and migration management, as part of a long-awaited partnership agreement with Brussels, but the finalization of the agreement was put on hold after the crisis erupted, according to EU officials.
The EPP leader reiterated his call for all those who entered illegally to be returned to Morocco, a position also endorsed by the European Commission.
However, Spain’s Youth Minister Sira Rego said on Monday that most unaccompanied minors stranded in Ceuta will remain in Spain, in line with national law. The decision has sparked controversy, with the right-wing opposition calling for all those who entered the exclave to be returned to Morocco.
“I think that in not so many EU countries this same situation would have lasted for over five weeks,” the EPP leader said, in a direct criticism of Sánchez’s handling of the crisis.
He also pointed to the “warnings” sent to the government before the incident occurred.
A police report leaked in early September suggested that Moroccan forces had played a role in pushing migrants into Ceuta, putting Madrid on the defensive. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska then ordered the police to clarify the claims, which directly contradicted the government’s narrative of “trusted cooperation” with Rabat.
Weber also linked the Ceuta crisis to what he described as the “mixed signals” sent by Madrid through its large-scale regularization plan for undocumented migrants who had lived in Spain continuously for at least five months before January 1, 2026.
Almost 1.2 million people applied for residence permits under the scheme, which runs counter to the growing European crackdown on irregular immigration and the position taken by most EU countries on the issue.