The group of European socialists, the S&D led by Iratxe García, wants to protect Morocco in Europe. In a parliamentary resolution that mirrors the arguments of Pedro Sánchez’s Government, the group avoids at all times criticizing or blaming the country for the massive influx of immigrants that Ceuta suffered at the end of July. Moreover, it praises the work of the Moroccan authorities in the process of returning the immigrants.
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“The existing cooperation mechanisms between Spain and Morocco allowed the rapid return of the vast majority of those who had crossed irregularly,” states this resolution that the socialists have presented as an alternative to the one promoted by the European People’s Party, which is much tougher than that of the S&D.
The socialists also harshly criticize Giorgia Meloni and “Italy’s decision to immediately introduce controls at the internal borders with Spain from August 1 following the events in Ceuta, even though those who had arrived irregularly could not continue their journey to Spain or any other Schengen State,” the document adds. In fact, the socialist parliamentary text devotes even more lines to this decision and attitude of the Italian Government than to Morocco’s role in the crisis.
The document presented by the EPP, as already mentioned, goes much further. It clearly demands that “Moroccan authorities assume their responsibilities as a key partner of the European Union and fulfill their commitments regarding border management, return, and migration cooperation,” while “emphasizing that such partnership must be based on the unconditional respect of the territorial integrity of the Union’s Member States.”
The breaking of Morocco-EU relations is not requested and the popular sources consulted emphasize that this is not the goal. They do affirm that, after the invasion Ceuta suffered, the terms can no longer be the same and, above all, that it must be made clear to the Moroccan government that something like this cannot happen again. But they do not want to break relations.
The text also directly speaks of “hybrid war” and links it to Morocco, while the socialist document only refers to a “hybrid attack” and, of course, makes no connection to a possible Moroccan origin. And the popular resolution also considers “that any statement questioning Spanish sovereignty is unacceptable and incompatible with the obligations of a partner country.”
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Now the groups will negotiate the different resolutions, which will be voted on next Thursday. But it seems clear that the EPP will not support the socialists’ resolution under any circumstances because it is very mild, while the S&D has already cast doubt on its favorable vote for the European People’s Party’s resolution, which was the first group to announce it would present a resolution and is the formation putting the most pressure on this issue.
“If what they intend with this resolution is what they are doing in Spain, which is to exploit Ceuta with the sole aim of attacking the Government of Spain, they will not find us there. They will not find us there,” Iratxe García already stated this morning at the press conference she held at the European Parliament.
“When the right and far-right buy the interested message of those who caused this situation, that what happened to Spain is due to their migration policies, and therefore link the extraordinary regularization to the crisis that occurred in Ceuta, if that is the basis, there will be no possibility of a common resolution,” emphasized the S&D leader.
There will already be a meeting this afternoon to try to reach an agreement that seems complicated, and the talks will remain open until the vote the day after tomorrow. And, in between, the speech on the State of the European Union that President Von der Leyen will deliver tomorrow.
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