The President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, has denounced the use of migration flows as a tool against the borders of the European Union, citing the massive entry of 72,000 immigrants in Ceuta among the most recent examples.
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“The European Union has been facing a new experience for seven years: the instrumentalization of migration as a new way to threaten our territorial integrity,” he stated during his speech at the Ambrosetti Forum, one of the most prestigious international economic and geopolitical conferences held in the Italian town of Cernobbio.
The president compared the situation in Ceuta with that experienced at other external EU borders. “We have seen it at the border between Poland and Belarus. We have seen it at the border between Greece and Turkey. And we have seen it now at the border between Morocco and the entrance to Ceuta,” he pointed out, emphasizing that Europe must be able to identify these types of situations, act against them, and “fight against this”.
Costa himself had already pointed out at the end of August after meeting in Vilnius with the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, that the “instrumentalization of migration” is “totally unacceptable” when it occurs at the external borders of the European Union and had explicitly included Ceuta among the affected scenarios. He then called for “a joint European response” and “a safe and strong Europe”.
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In his speech today, the President of the European Council also argued that the fight against irregular immigration must be supported “by having good agreements with the countries of origin, with the transit countries”.
Something that, for Costa, is “the key” to controlling irregular immigration into European territory, combining cooperation with third countries with a European response in cases where immigration is used as a pressure mechanism.
