Vivas proposes to rethink the EU-Morocco collaboration "if the border is not respected"

The processing of the new Migration and Asylum Pact in the European Parliament is closed: the main legislative package was definitively approved by the European Parliament in April 2024, subsequently adopted by the Council in May 2024, and came into effect in all Member States on June 12, 2026. As of today, the focus is no longer on the approval of the rules in Parliament, but on their practical implementation and on some complementary pieces (such as the reform of the return directive) that are being negotiated separately.

1. What exactly did the European Parliament approve and when

According to the official press release of the European Parliament dated April 10, 2024, titled “MEPs approve the new Migration and Asylum Pact”, the Parliament adopted in Plenary ten legislative texts that comprehensively reform the European migration and asylum policy. Among others, these include:

• The Regulation on asylum and migration management, which replaces the old Dublin system and establishes a solidarity mechanism among Member States.
• The Crisis and force majeure Regulation, to manage sudden increases in arrivals and situations of migrant instrumentalization.
• The Screening Regulation at the border and the Asylum Procedure Regulation, which introduce controls and accelerated procedures at external borders.
• The reform of the Eurodac system, which expands and strengthens the asylum and migration database.
• The Reception Conditions Directive, the Qualification Regulation, and the EU Resettlement Framework.

At the same stage, Parliament also approved its position on other system elements, such as the harmonization of protection criteria and reception standards. The vote on April 10, 2024, marks the closure of the first reading and, de facto, the end of the parliamentary processing of the core Pact package.

2. Formal adoption by the Council and entry into force

The European Commission details in its communication of June 12, 2024 on the Common Implementation Plan of the Pact that, following the political agreement of December 2023, the package was:

• Approved by the European Parliament on April 10, 2024.
• Formally adopted by the Council on May 14, 2024.
• The legal instruments of the Pact entered into force on June 11, 2024.

Subsequently, another Commission note dated June 11, 2026, titled “The Migration and Asylum Pact enters into force on June 12”, confirms that on June 12, 2026 the Pact begins to apply in all Member States. That is, the legislative phase in Parliament and the Council is concluded and the system has moved to the application phase.

3. What remains pending or parallel to the Pact

The Commission itself, in its document of “Questions and Answers on the Migration and Asylum Pact” from May 2024, explained that alongside the core of the Pact, there were two legislative proposals still pending at that time: the reform of the return directive and the directive on long-term residents.

In the following months, institutions have mainly advanced on the return directive and on rules linked to countries of origin and safe third countries. For example:

• In December 2025, Parliament and Council announced a provisional political agreement on a new regulation of “safe third country” and on the list of safe countries of origin, with planned application linked to June 2026, but emphasizing that the agreement must still be formally adopted by both institutions.
• Press releases from the Council and Parliament in December 2025 stress that this agreement on safe countries and the reform of return rules complements the Pact but follows its own legislative path.

Therefore, although the “Migration and Asylum Pact” as a package is already approved and in force, negotiations and regulatory developments continue on specific pieces (returns, safe countries, etc.) that orbit around the new framework but do not reopen the processing of the Pact itself.

4. Conclusion: current status in the European Parliament

In summary, strictly regarding the European Parliament:

• The main legislative processing of the Pact concluded with the Plenary vote on April 10, 2024.
• Since then, Parliament has taken on a role of political oversight and promotion of implementation, and negotiating complementary rules (such as the return directive), but there is no new “Pact” currently under approval.
• Since June 12, 2026, the Pact is part of the applicable EU law, and the debate focuses on how Member States are applying it and on additional adjustments to the asylum and return framework.

In short, it is no longer accurate to speak of “processing” of the Pact in the European Parliament: the legislative process has ended and a phase of application and implementation has begun, with additional reforms on return and safe countries still under negotiation or pending formal adoption.

The powers of the President of the Autonomous City of Ceuta are fundamentally determined by Organic Law 1/1995, the Statute of Autonomy of Ceuta, which configures this figure as head of the local-autonomous executive and, at the same time, as mayor of the city. Based on the statutory text and state local government legislation, a clear block of political, representative, normative, and government organization functions can be reconstructed.

Political and government leadership

The Statute establishes that the president of the city:

• Presides over the Assembly of Ceuta and the Government Council, directing and coordinating the activity of the latter. This makes them the highest authority of the executive power in the city.
• Leads the general political action of the City, in line with the statutory design that attributes to the Government Council the direction of Ceuta's policy and the exercise of executive and administrative functions; the president is the one who drives and coordinates that action.
• They are the immediate political responsible before the Assembly, which can demand their responsibility through a motion of censure and control their actions through the parliamentary control mechanisms provided in the Statute and the Assembly's Rules.

Institutional representation

The Statute provides that the president holds the supreme representation of the City. This implies:

• Representation of the Autonomous City of Ceuta before the State, other autonomous communities and autonomous cities, as well as before institutions and international organizations under the terms allowed by the Constitution and laws.
• Representation of the City in the signing of cooperation agreements and accords that the Assembly is empowered to approve with autonomous communities and with Melilla.
• Since the Statute itself specifies that the president also holds the status of mayor, they also assume the representation of the municipal administration of Ceuta before third parties, within the framework of basic local government legislation.

Normative and regulatory powers

Although the main normative power corresponds to the Assembly of Ceuta, the president participates in this area in several ways:

• Through the Government Council they preside over, they promote the drafting of draft regulations submitted to the Assembly (own city regulations, organizational rules, and other provisions within Ceuta's competencies).
• The Statute recognizes the City, in its article 21, the regulatory normative power in matters within its competence; the Government Council can develop the Assembly's rules by regulation, and the president directs this function and is politically responsible for it.
• As the highest representative of the City and head of the executive, the president is responsible for the publication and execution of general scope rules and provisions through the "Official Gazette of the City of Ceuta," a normative publicity body expressly provided for in the Statute.

Organization of the Government Council

The statutory text specifies several very relevant organizational powers:

• Appointment and dismissal of the councilors who make up the Government Council, who are freely appointed and removed by the president, who must report to the Assembly.
• Possibility to temporarily delegate their own executive functions to certain members of the Council, allowing modulation of the internal distribution of responsibilities.
• Calling and presiding over the sessions of the Government Council and the Assembly, as well as setting the agenda for both, under the terms provided by the Assembly's Rules and the internal rules of the Council itself.

Relations with the Assembly and the National Government

Institutionally, the president:

• Can raise the question of confidence before the Assembly of Ceuta on their program or a general policy statement; if confidence is denied, they must resign, triggering a new presidential election process.
• Is subject to the motion of censure mechanism, by which the Assembly can demand their responsibility, simultaneously appointing a new president.
• Participates, through the channels provided in the Statute, in the normative initiative before the General Courts, coordinating with the Assembly the request to the Government for the presentation of bills or the sending of legislative proposals to the Congress.
• Is the main political interlocutor with the National Government regarding transfers of functions and services, financing, and execution of state policies in Ceuta.

Security, public order, and coordination with the State

Article 21 of the Statute includes, among the city's competencies, the surveillance and protection of buildings and facilities and the local police, under the terms of basic state legislation (article 149.1.29 of the Constitution). In view of this:

• The president, as mayor and head of the executive, exercises the political leadership over the local police, within the framework set by the Organic Law on security forces and bodies and the state local government regulations.
• The Statute expressly provides that, by joint initiative of the president and the Government delegate, bodies may be established to develop and control the execution of joint plans and programs of works and services. This clause reflects a function of institutional coordination with the General State Administration also relevant in sensitive areas such as security, civil protection, or management of strategic infrastructures.

Overall, the president of the Autonomous City of Ceuta is a hybrid figure who accumulates functions of autonomous president and mayor, with a strong role in political leadership, institutional representation, and organization of the local-autonomous government, always within the framework set by the Statute and basic State legislation.

The management of the border between Ceuta and Morocco does not depend on a single law, but on a normative block combining Spanish legislation, bilateral agreements with Morocco, and the European Schengen framework. Below are the basic pieces that currently structure this regime.

1. Spanish framework on immigration and asylum

• Organic Law 4/2000, on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain (consolidated text). This is the so-called “Immigration Law” and establishes:
  • Definition of foreigner, State competencies in immigration, and principles of migration policy.
  • Regime of entries, returns, expulsions, and detention.
  • A specific regime of border rejection in Ceuta and Melilla in its tenth additional provision. According to Demócrata's analysis (article on hot returns), it allows rejecting anyone detected:
    • On the border line of Ceuta or Melilla,
    • while attempting irregular entry,
    • trying to overcome physical containment elements (fence, etc.).
    The Supreme Court, in a ruling of July 8, 2026, has specified that this regime cannot be applied to those arriving by swimming if there is no physical containment element in the sea; in those cases, the ordinary return procedure of article 58 of the same Law applies.
• Immigration Regulation (Royal Decree 557/2011 and successive amendments): details visas, permits, returns, and detention, also applicable in Ceuta.
• Law 12/2009, regulating the right to asylum and subsidiary protection (BOE-A-2009-17242). It orders how asylum is requested and processed, also in border crossings and transit zones. According to Demócrata's analysis, even in the context of rejection or return, an international protection request must be able to be formalized, which suspends the return until its admissibility is resolved.

2. Citizen Security Law and special regime of Ceuta

• Organic Law 4/2015, on the protection of citizen security (BOE-A-2015-3442). It regulates the actions of the Security Forces and Bodies and the sanctioning regime. The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court have interpreted this law in relation to the specific border rejection of Ceuta and Melilla, conditioning its constitutionality on respect for:
  • Individual identification of the affected persons.
  • Real possibility of requesting asylum.
  • Enhanced protection of minors and vulnerable persons.
  The constitutional and Supreme Court rulings cited by the BOE and the Interior Ministry's note delimit the legal framework of these practices at the Ceuta border.

3. Spanish–Moroccan agreements on movement and readmission

• Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Morocco on the movement of persons, transit, and readmission of foreigners illegally entered, signed in Madrid on February 13, 1992 (provisional application; entry into force). According to the extract obtained by InstitutionalSearcher:
  • Obliges the border authorities of the requested State to readmit nationals of third countries who have illegally entered the other State from its territory (arts. 1 and 2).
  • Regulates transit for expulsion of nationals of third countries (arts. 6–8).
  • Creates a Spanish–Moroccan Joint Committee to resolve disputes, monitor the application of the Agreement, and organize cooperation in border control (art. 11).
  This treaty is the legal basis for many returns from Ceuta to Morocco and is used in coordination with the Immigration Law.
• Other recent bilateral agreements (border cooperation, integrated management, projects with the IOM, etc.), published in the BOE and cited in searches, complement daily operations but rely on the basic framework above.

4. European framework: Schengen and EU external border

• Instrument of ratification of the Agreement on Spain's accession to the Schengen Agreement implementation Convention, made in Bonn on June 25, 1991 (BOE-A-1994-7586). It integrates Spain into the Schengen area and defines, among other aspects:
  • The bodies with competencies in cross-border pursuit and police cooperation.
  • The status of Ceuta and Melilla as part of the external border of the EU, which explains the “double filter” that the Government describes in its notes: control at the land border with Morocco and Schengen control on departure to the Peninsula.
• On this basis, EU regulations on external borders, surveillance (EUROSUR), and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) apply, which are not always fully published in the BOE but govern technical cooperation, deployment of resources, and control standards at a border like Ceuta's.

5. Sectoral and operational regulations

• Orders and resolutions that enable and regulate the El Tarajal border post and its transformation into a “smart border,” with investments in control systems, according to official Interior Ministry notes from 2024.
• Interior Ministry orders and Council of Ministers agreements that create coordination authorities to address irregular immigration in areas such as the Strait and Alborán, which influence the devices on Ceuta.
• Health and border control regulations (for example, on external health or specific inspections) that apply to the flows of people crossing the Ceuta border.

Overall, the border between Ceuta and Morocco is currently managed by combining: the Immigration Law and its additional provision for Ceuta/Melilla, the asylum law, the Organic Law on citizen security, the 1992 readmission agreement with Morocco, and the Schengen and EU external border framework, complemented by more specific regulatory and operational agreements.