Estonian PM: EU must act together on migration and preserve Schengen

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) has said the European Union must act jointly on migration after this week’s crisis in Spain, and that the Schengen free-movement area should be preserved.

This week, approximately 60,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the North African coast, from Morocco. By Friday evening, more than 48,000 had voluntarily gone back to Morocco, according to Spanish officials. The movement followed a ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court that migrants stopped at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla could not be sent back to Morocco summarily.

On Saturday, Michal and representatives of 21 other EU member states signed a joint letter to the bloc’s senior leaders calling for a swift and coordinated European response. The letter said mass uncontrolled border crossings, the use of migration as a political tool and other hybrid threats must not be allowed to create the impression that illegal entry into the EU could later become legal stay. It also said ministers should look at providing more support from Frontex, the EU border agency, and assess how effective EU cooperation with Morocco is.

The signatories were Italy, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden.

Michal was responding to opposition leader Urmas Reinsalu (Isamaa), who had said suspending Schengen would be justified in such a critical situation, as Italy had temporarily done with Spain earlier this week. Writing on social media, Michal said new internal borders within Schengen would not benefit Estonia or Estonians, and that nobody wanted a return to the time when an overland trip to Central Europe meant going through more than five time-consuming border checks.

Michal stressed that Estonia treats every illegal crossing of its border with the utmost seriousness and is already helping countries such as Latvia with border issues. Organisers of such migration would be punished and those arriving in Estonia illegally would be detained and sent back to the countries they came from, he said. The Schengen area is a major achievement that must be preserved, he added.

Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, expressed full solidarity with Spain over the events in Ceuta, saying the country had the right and duty to protect its borders and the EU’s external border. He noted that nobody was entitled to enter the European Union without following the common rules, and respect for those rules was vital for the integrity of the Schengen area.