Ceuta, European Parliament approves resolution critical of Madrid with EPP-right axis

We wrote about it on September 15th: Ceuta, the Spanish government sets the end of the year as the deadline for exiting the migration crisis. Two days later, Strasbourg’s response arrived: with 339 votes in favour, 225 against and 16 abstentions, the chamber approved a resolution on the migration crisis affecting Ceuta and Melilla on September 17th.

The text, backed by the Populars and the right after the failure of an agreement with the Socialists and with the majority supporting von der Leyen, expresses concern over the mass regularisation launched by Pedro Sánchez’s government, calling it a possible “pull factor” — a factor capable of attracting new arrivals rather than containing them.

This is the first time the European chamber has formally addressed Spain’s handling of the emergency, after weeks in which Madrid’s executive announced reception plans and funds for the autonomous city, as reported in the September 15th piece. The resolution does not go into the merits of the figures announced by Sánchez, but shifts the judgement to the political level: the majority that approved it considers the regularisation a risky choice in terms of its attractiveness for flows towards the Union.

On the opposite front, the Socialists and Democrats had proposed an alternative amendment that shifted the criticism onto Italy, challenging the introduction of internal border controls from August 1st and their extension until September 16th, 2026. The amendment was rejected, leaving the EPP-right line as the sole text approved by the chamber.

The resolution closes with an operational request: to accelerate cooperation between Spain and Morocco on returns and readmission of migrants who entered irregularly at the end of July — the same issue, that of returns linked to the July 29th entries, that the Spanish government had already addressed in its end-of-year plans.

The vote outlines a new geography of alliances in Strasbourg on the migration dossier: an axis between Populars and the right that prevailed both over the Socialist proposal and over the Community executive’s line, while the management of the Ceuta crisis now remains under the direct scrutiny of the European Parliament.