EU Commission has ‘open questions’ for Spain on request for Frontex to expand in Ceuta

Spain will need to answer “important open questions” about how an expanded mission of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, would operate on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, the EU Commission said on Thursday (3 September) The commission confirmed that Spain had last week requested a permanent presence for the Frontex in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in north Africa which borders Morocco and saw a surge in border crossings on 30 and 31 July. A commission spokesperson told reporters that the EU executive was “advancing on the assessment of these requests as a priority”. He added that for the commission’s final assessment, “some important open questions … will need to be answered by the Spanish authorities first”, without providing more details. “There is already a Frontex presence in Ceuta in the ports. This is about what other areas might need Frontex support,” said the commission spokesperson. The commission says that it immediately offered extra financial and agency support via Frontex and Europol to Spanish authorities following the mass border crossing of 75,000 people in late July. Although Spanish authorities say that around 70,000 migrants were returned to Morocco within a week of the crossing, the breach of the border prompted angry criticism of the Spanish government from the likes of Italy and the Netherlands. Italy has imposed border controls on arrivals from Spain until 15 September, while France has increased police checks close to its land border with Spain. In Madrid, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez continues to face heavy political pressure about the government’s response to the Ceuta crisis. On Wednesday, tens of thousands of people protested in Ceuta and other Spanish cities against the government’s handling of the border crisis. Sánchez faced a barrage of criticism in Spain's Congress of Deputies on Thursday, with opposition MPs demanding his resignation and even some allies within his minority government coalition voicing discontent.