In May 2021, around 10,000 people accessed the autonomous city of Ceuta from Morocco without authorization. Since then, the North African country has received almost 7 billion euros in aid and favorable loans from Europe through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), of which 1.045 billion euros come from Spain, from the Business Internationalization Fund (Fiem).
These funds, intended to improve the Moroccan economy, energize its society, and improve living conditions, seem not to have been enough when at the end of July 2026 a massive unauthorized entry (80,000 people) occurred in Ceuta territory. Morocco continues to play the card of sudden immigration, but its economy largely depends on Spain, its main supplier and client, and the rest of the European Union.
Apart from the aid that the Government has granted to the North African country since 2021 – including loans of 750 million euros to finance the delivery of 40 intercity trains or 250 million for the Casablanca desalination plant to alleviate the water crisis – critical infrastructure for Morocco’s economic development has also been financed in previous years. Among them is the conventional railway signaling of the Tangier Med-Casablanca lines, with an amount of 81 million euros granted in 2013. This was a major logistical advance, since 70% of the goods traveling by train in the African country head to one of its ports to then continue to Europe.
In fact, the maritime route is one of the main strategic levers Spain has to influence Morocco’s international trade, whose industrial success has been built by attracting large multinationals that produce in the country because they can place their products in Europe in record time (between 24 and 48 hours). That time frame depends on Spain not conducting exhaustive physical security inspections on every Moroccan ship passing through the ports of Algeciras or Tarifa, which would delay the journey and evaporate the commercial advantage.
To put it in context, the Tangier-Med Port managed the flow of 535,203 TIR trucks (large-tonnage vehicles full of goods that make part of the journey by ship and the other by road) destined for Europe in 2025, which absorbs around 70% of all exports from the North African country to the European Union (EU): the main passage route is the Strait of Gibraltar. Currently, the inspection policy favors the flow from Morocco. The lever would consist of tightening this laxity.
Furthermore, Moroccan immigrants who leave to work and send money to their families have a significant weight within their economy, and in this regard Spain also gains relevance, as it is the second country in the world in the amount of remittances sent to Morocco. It received 1.589 billion euros (12.5% of all remittances the country receives) from its relatives residing in Spanish territory in 2025, out of a total of 12.731 billion. France has led this ranking for years, contributing around 30% of that amount, meaning that in 2025 Moroccans residing in France contributed around 3.8 billion euros to their country’s economy.
If there were, for example, a tax on these transfers, Morocco would see a powerful way to balance its trade deficit diminished. In 2025, Spain bought goods from Morocco worth 10.427 billion euros (mostly electrical material, clothing, vehicles, and food). However, the flow of goods traveling in the opposite direction (what Morocco buys from Spain) was estimated at 12.330 billion euros (mainly fuel, machinery and mechanical appliances, or vehicles). The balance is therefore favorable to Spain. But the relationship is much more relevant for Morocco, which has Spain as the partner that buys almost one out of every 4 euros it exports.
The countryside
The Alaouite Kingdom has gone from being an eminently agricultural country to becoming an exporting country with European approval, but that transformation is conditioned by the quality of the institutional relationship maintained between both continents. In fact, there are sectors that ask to tighten the conditions of Moroccan imports, such as agriculture, and Spain refuses to do so to maintain a stable link: in the first quarter of 2026, Spain bought 70% more tomatoes from Morocco than in the same period 10 years ago, according to the Hortoinfo study.
Likewise, Spain also acts as a generator of wealth and employment in Morocco. Not only because Spanish-based companies are responsible for carrying out works financed by the Government (such as Acciona in the Casablanca desalination plant), but because, according to the Spanish Investment Registry, the stock of Spanish investments in Morocco as of December 31, 2024 (latest available data) amounted to 2.508.5 million euros, with the creation of 25,139 jobs. Furthermore, of those jobs, Spain contributes to the development of the local Moroccan economy through tourism: Morocco received 4 million tourists from Spain in 2024, representing a 15% increase compared to the previous year. With this figure, Spain ranks as the second country sending tourists to the Alaouite Kingdom, surpassed only by France, which contributed 5.2 million travelers in the same year.
