Spain has voiced concern that the European Commission may not classify it as a state under migratory pressure, a status that can make countries eligible for financial support and for the relocation of migrants to other EU member states. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska set out the government’s objections in a letter to European Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner, according to elDiario.es, which reported having seen the letter.
In the previous assessment, in November 2025, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus were described as being under great migratory pressure. Grande-Marlaska argues that excluding Spain now would overlook the scale of events in Ceuta on July 30 and 31, when 80,000 people crossed the border between Morocco and Spain. He describes the episode as an extraordinary migration emergency.
The minister says the Commission’s approach would penalise Spain for efforts to prevent irregular migration in cooperation with African partners. Those efforts, he argues, are reflected in fewer search-and-rescue operations during the assessment period. He also says the assessment should account for the longer-term pressure on routes to Spain, including 2,500 irregular arrivals in the Canary Islands over the past two weeks. That figure represents 22% of the 11,470 arrivals recorded in the islands in 2026, according to the letter.
Grande-Marlaska warns that Spain would be the only country to change category in the current cycle and would therefore be left out of the solidarity arrangements. He also notes that Spain has not yet received the financial contributions allocated to it under the 2026 solidarity framework. In his view, the assessment should recognise both the Ceuta crisis and the continuing nature of migration pressure on Spain.
The minister also points to EU funding already provided to Spain. The Commission approved an additional €244 million for the country’s National Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund programme for 2021–2027, bringing the total allocated through the programme to €812 million. Spain has also received €82 million through the fund’s thematic mechanism and €114.7 million in emergency assistance linked to the situation in Ceuta. Grande-Marlaska cites that emergency aid as evidence that Spain faced migratory pressure.
He says a decision not to classify Spain accordingly would raise questions about whether countries that reduce irregular migration in a given year could lose recognition of the cumulative pressure they face. The letter warns that the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact risks losing credibility if assessments do not reflect the situation and challenges confronting member states.
The dispute comes amid wider divisions over migration policy. At the latest European Council, Spain, backed by Portugal, Luxembourg and France, blocked an attempt by Denmark, Poland and Italy to include language opposing measures that could encourage migration, a move understood as referring to Spain’s regularisation programme. The three countries also sought a greater coordinating role for the Commission in national migration policies, according to the report.
Sources: elDiario.es.