Letter from Brussels: Ceuta Migrant Panic Casts Shadow Over EU’s Summer

The mass incursion into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta showed would-be EU members how the European bloc responds to a genuine shock to its self-proclaimed values of ‘solidarity’. The weeks that bridge July and August are a period when the EU buildings around Schuman here in Brussels grow quiet, and correspondents’ group chats go mute. But this year the last week of July was far from quiet. While EU spokespersons were cycling through out-of-office messages and the unlucky ones were covering for absent colleagues, tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta - the largest single-day surge in irregular arrivals ever recorded on EU territory. Dozens died. Within two days, the story had stopped being about victims. It had become a story about Europe’s political nerves. Subscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article. Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber. Buy Premium Subscription Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe. Buy Premium Subscription If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, please contact us