When former German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered her historic "Wir schaffen das" ("We will manage it") in 2015, Europe was experiencing its greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II.
More than a million people arrived that year via the Mediterranean and the so-called Balkan route fleeing from the war in Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Germany welcomed nearly a million asylum seekers, and solidarity became the axis of the European discourse.
Eleven years later, the image is radically different. The massive entry of tens of thousands of people through Ceuta from Morocco has focused the priority of the European Union on regaining control of the border, accelerating returns, and preventing them from reaching continental European territory.
The crisis in Ceuta has served to confirm a trend that has been developing for years, but which now manifests itself openly. Europe no longer conceives the migratory phenomenon solely as a humanitarian challenge, but also as a matter of security and stability.
From "Wir schaffen das" to "protecting the borders"
But that trend does not start at the southern Spanish border. The turning point came in 2021, when Belarus facilitated the arrival of thousands of migrants at the borders of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Brussels then stopped talking exclusively about refugees and described that migratory pressure as a "hybrid attack" organized by the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The European Commission fully supported Warsaw, allowed exceptional measures at the border, and reinforced the idea that immigration could be used as a tool of pressure between states. That crisis changed much of the European language.
Since then, the Commission has promoted reforms to expedite expulsions, strengthen Frontex, negotiate agreements with countries of origin and transit, and tighten control of external borders. The crisis in Ceuta fits fully into that new logic. Although Brussels avoids directly pointing to Morocco, the geopolitical dimension of the episode has been present from the very beginning.
Solidarity with Spain does not prevent differences
After the massive entry recorded in Ceuta on July 30, the interior ministers of the European Union have expressed their support for Spain this Tuesday and have acknowledged the speed with which the Government managed to reduce migratory pressure through returns and the reinforcement of the border.
The European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, has conveyed to the member states -in line with Fernando Grande-Marlaska's speech- that the situation is already under control and has emphasized that none of the people who crossed from Morocco have accessed the Spanish mainland or the rest of the Schengen area.
The European Commission has also offered financial assistance, technical support, and a potential reinforcement of Frontex, Europol, and the European Asylum Agency to continue managing the situation if Spain deemed it necessary. However, the consensus ends there.
Rome, Helsinki, and Copenhagen break the unity
But while Brussels has shown its support for Spain, several European governments have hardened their rhetoric. Italy, backed by Finland, Denmark, and later by other European leaders, proposed last week to study extraordinary measures within the Schengen area after the Ceuta crisis.
Although legally no state can unilaterally expel another from the Schengen area, Italy decided to re-establish selective controls for non-EU travelers coming from Spain, a measure that Madrid considered unnecessary.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, argued that irregular immigration constitutes a threat to European security and demanded more robust tools to protect the external borders. France, without going that far, also reinforced surveillance at its border with Spain.
Portugal, on the contrary, rejected any suspension of Schengen and defended maintaining coordination with Madrid. The differences reflect that European migration policy no longer revolves solely around Brussels, but also around the national priorities of each government.
Brussels hardens its position
Although the European Commission has supported Spain's actions during the crisis, it has also made it clear that the future lies in a much stricter migration policy.
During the extraordinary meeting of ministers, Brunner presented a roadmap based on five priorities: strengthening cooperation with countries of origin and transit, accelerating returns, expanding Frontex's capabilities, improving early warning systems against organized campaigns on social media, and pursuing human trafficking networks with greater intensity.
Furthermore, Brussels has reopened the debate on return centers in third countries, a proposal mainly driven by Italy to process certain expulsion procedures outside the community territory. Just a few years ago, such an initiative would have been unthinkable within the Commission. Today it is part of the official European debate.
Immigration, increasingly linked to geopolitics
The crisis in Ceuta has also demonstrated again that immigration can become an instrument of international pressure. It is not the first time. Turkey already used the opening of its borders during its negotiations with the European Union. Belarus did the same against Poland in 2021.
And the precedent of Ceuta in May of that same year, coinciding with the diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco over the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, remains very present in European institutions.
Now Brussels avoids establishing a direct relationship between Rabat and the massive entry recorded last week, but the episode has reinforced the conviction within the Union that the protection of external borders is also part of the strategic security of the EU.
The victims remain the same
But while Europe debates about Schengen, Frontex, or returns, the human dimension continues to mark the crisis. In Ceuta, hundreds of unaccompanied foreign minors still remain waiting for a stable solution.
On the other side of the border, numerous Moroccan families continue to seek news of children, siblings, or parents missing during the crossings, after a tragedy that has left dozens dead.
From the massive reception of refugees in 2015, there has been a shift to a strategy based on border control, cooperation with third countries, and rapid expulsions. But, despite the paradigm shift, the human consequences remain practically the same.