European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson responded to questions by members of the European Parliament from Catalonia on a Fortex mission in Ceuta and Melilla by clearing out that it can only be done by a request from Spain.
Johansson stated that according to the relevant provisions of EU Law 1896/1919 on European Borders and Coast Guard, only the affected Member State may request the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) to launch a joint operation at its external borders.
She noted that if the presence of the elements of this agency is required in Ceuta and Melilla or a rapid intervention at their borders, or any action related to ‘Frontex’, then Pedro Sanchez’s government must request it before the Executive Director of the Agency.
The request may then be approved or rejected.
Anthony Comin, Carles Puigdemont, and Clara Ponsati, the Catalan parliamentarians who asked the European Union, have previously expressed with a group of elected officials in the two occupied cities, their desire to include them within the scope of the protection of Frontex.
They explained that it will make the borders of Ceuta and southern Melilla considerable external borders of the European Union.
The demands were first raised in May last year (2021) by the far-right Spanish “Vox” party, after thousands of irregular migrants attempted to enter Ceuta, only to be rejected by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez.
The challenge of irregular immigration was not the main reason for the request to protect the two occupied cities by the Frontex agency.
A group of Spanish politicians and officials had previously expressed their fear of Morocco’s demand to return the two occupied cities, which prompted the “popular” and “Fox” parties to demand the integration of Ceuta and Melilla into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Last week, Melilla’s Prime Minister Eduardo de Castro, announced the allocation of 90,000 euros to equip an office that would serve as a special headquarters for the city in Brussels, within the scope of Spain’s permanent representation to the European Union.
He stressed that the establishment of this office would be a “critical point for the future of the city” which he considers to be “the external borders of the European Union.”
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