At the European Council summit in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pushed back against objections raised by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker over his administration's approach to migration, telling reporters that the characterisation of Spain's record bore no resemblance to the actual data and that his government's handling of irregular arrivals and its regularisation programme for migrants spoke for themselves.
Sánchez drew a distinction between his policy disagreements with the Danish prime minister and the remarks that came from the Czech leader, telling reporters that while differences with Denmark existed, the Czech prime minister's comments bore a closer resemblance to the positions of Spain's Vox party than to any ordinary diplomatic dispute.
Babiš put forward the position that certain European leaders were prepared to allow demographic change as a means of maintaining political power, and that his country held the option of reinforcing border measures to limit the entry of migrants travelling from elsewhere within the EU. Stocker characterised Spain's regularisation plan as sending the wrong message to other EU member states, with potential repercussions extending across the bloc. A request from Frederiksen reached the European Commission to examine what Spain's measures might mean in practice.
Responding to the criticism, Sánchez pointed to what he described as verifiable advances in reducing unauthorised border crossings and strengthening ties with countries of origin and transit, and held up the migration and asylum pact reached during the Spanish presidency as concrete proof that the policy framework was producing tangible outcomes, going further to position his country's approach as a model worth emulating within the wider collective effort to address irregular migration.
At a press conference, the prime minister pointed to ship stops in the Atlantic, entry refusals at airports, and the return of travellers as concrete examples of how the country manages migration flows. He pushed back on assertions that Spain serves as a corridor for onward movement of migrants through the European Union, and told reporters that available figures point to a carefully managed approach — covering both irregular arrivals and lawful migration flows — alongside active engagement with countries of transit and origin.
At the gathering of European leaders, Sánchez put the case for maintaining a left-of-centre government in Spain while urging his counterparts to move forward with implementing the bloc's migration and asylum agreement.
Advancing the EU migration and asylum pact — along with tighter coordination among member states — stood at the centre of remarks delivered by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She stated that unauthorised border entries into the EU had dropped by more than 56 per cent across the preceding two years.
Three areas took shape as von der Leyen's framework for EU migration policy: putting the migration and asylum pact into full operation, tightening oversight and protection along external borders, and building greater readiness for border situations that may arise. Von der Leyen put forward plans for a strengthened Frontex — the bloc's border management agency — with expanded capacity to assist member states as needs arise, adding that coordinated collective action remained a prerequisite for the initiative to deliver results.
Three countries — Denmark, Poland, and Italy — sought amendments to the wording of the summit's final document, among them a reference to a Spanish proposal that would grant legal status to some 600,000 people currently living without authorisation. Both France and Spain put forward objections to the revisions under discussion.
An earlier version of the text called on member states to steer clear of policies that might draw people toward unauthorised border crossings, though that passage was later replaced with wording that carried noticeably less weight. The draft also placed demands on the European Commission for tighter alignment between national migration policies — particularly those with cross-border implications for fellow member states.
Following the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron told fellow EU leaders that policy disagreements among member states on migration were undermining collective action. He voiced backing for Spain regarding the Ceuta situation, adding that the debate had been handled poorly at the table and that politicising it had generated divisions rather than solutions. He went on to say that fragmentation along national lines tends to erode collective capacity for meaningful action.
Macron characterised the events in Ceuta as a humanitarian crisis and noted that France had not joined the letter addressed to Brussels by 22 EU member states, while also stating that responsibility for the incursion into Spanish territory had been apparent from the outset, well before the day's discussions took place.
