The discovery of a tunnel under Latvia's border with Belarus underscores the persistent threat to Europe's external frontiers. This finding comes as tens of thousands of irregular migrants overwhelmed Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta at the end of July, leaving around 100 dead. This mass influx, occurring in the same year, has forced a continent-wide reckoning with uncontrolled migration and the integrity of national borders.
Latvia's immediate response, vowing to increase efforts against smuggling networks, reflects a growing recognition among member states that national security depends on robust border defence. The Ceuta incident, which saw around 100 deaths, immediately triggered a deep diplomatic rift between Rome and Madrid. It exposed Spain's isolation as a progressive outlier in a Europe increasingly demanding secure borders.
Europe's Crumbling Borders
The sheer scale of the Ceuta crisis, with tens of thousands of irregular migrants crossing, pushed migration policy back to the centre of European politics. This event, in the same year, has cemented a right-wing, security-first approach as mainstream across the continent. Even traditionally left-leaning parties are now adopting securitarian language, a stark contrast to previous decades of open-border rhetoric.
Chiara Catelli, an advocacy officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, lamented this shift. She stated: "In the past years, there has been a progressive shift towards a more securitarian language from both traditionally conservative politicians and left-leaning ones." Catelli added that treating migration as a security problem "fosters social exclusion and marginalisation, while also criminalising solidarity towards migrants." This perspective, however, ignores the very real security and sovereignty concerns of European citizens.
The Cost of EU Overreach
The diplomatic fallout between Italy and Spain escalated when Giorgia Meloni's government reinstated border controls for air and sea arrivals following the irregular inflows into Ceuta. Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner confirmed contact with both Spanish and Italian interior ministers, noting that "internal border controls are temporary." Yet, the very need for such controls within the Schengen area highlights the profound failure of the EU's external border management.
Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland joined the call for the swift restoration of control over the EU's external borders, even floating the reintroduction of checks within Schengen. This demonstrates a growing consensus among nations that national sovereignty over borders must be reasserted, even if it means challenging the foundational principles of the open-border system that Brussels champions.
Italy and Denmark spearheaded an open letter, signed by 22 EU governments, addressed to EU institutional leaders. The letter explicitly called for "addressing all policies that can serve as pull factors, such as the regularisation of very large numbers of irregular migrants." This collective demand underscores the widespread concern over policies that incentivize illegal entry and strain national welfare systems.
Notably, Ireland, Portugal, France, and Luxembourg did not sign this critical letter, revealing a persistent divide within the Union on how to address the crisis. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had already faced criticism from his EU peers at the last European Council for his plan to regularise around half a million migrants who entered the country illegally, a move that undermines national consent and rule of law.
MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Spain/S&D, acknowledged the prevailing sentiment, stating: "At the European scale, the right wing and the nationalist, reactionary attitude towards migration is the prevailing one." MEP Cecilia Strada, Italy/S&D, further confirmed that Sánchez is regularly attacked by right-wing parties in the European Parliament, portraying him as the "last bastion of progressive migration policy at an EU level."
A Shift Towards National Sovereignty
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has worked closely with Meloni on this issue, forming a pragmatic alliance to tackle uncontrolled migration. Sánchez himself, despite his progressive stance, stated: "The Spanish government will use all the levers of the state, all the resources of the state, to guarantee the security of the citizens of Ceuta," and called the mass influx a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity." This admission highlights the severe impact on national security and territorial integrity when borders are not secured.
The right-wing turn in EU migration policy was cemented by new legislation endorsed by European governments and lawmakers in June, in the same year. This legislation includes stricter surveillance measures, restrictions on freedom of movement, and the possibility to establish "return hubs" in third countries. These measures represent a belated but necessary step towards regaining control over who enters and stays in Europe.
Return hubs, a controversial initiative spearheaded by Italy in Albania, aim to establish facilities for processing asylum requests and repatriation orders outside EU borders. The Netherlands and Denmark are outspoken supporters of this approach, recognizing the need to process claims before migrants reach European soil and strain national resources.
EPP leader Manfred Weber, in an op-ed in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, called for the swift establishment of return hubs in Africa. He pointed to Morocco's cooperation during the Ceuta crisis, where the country immediately agreed to take back most illegal border crossers, as a model for future partnerships. French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has dismissed return hubs as ineffective and contrary to EU values, clinging to outdated ideals.
At the last EU summit, 19 leaders signed a joint declaration calling to make "full use" of Europe's new migration rules, an implicit nod to the establishment of return hubs. Senior Commission officials have also adopted a more securitarian approach, with Commissioner Brunner stating: "we cannot accept such a breach of the integrity of our external borders and a violation also of the security of the Union."
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a letter to Sánchez, acknowledged the gravity of the situation: "From this incident, it is clear that we must do more to further strengthen our borders at critical points, both with vigilant monitoring and the use of physical barriers where needed." This statement, while welcome, comes after years of open-border policies that have left Europe vulnerable and its citizens questioning the future of their nations.