King of Spain claims attack on Member State is attack on EU

Snever to mention in concrete Ceuta, a Spanish city in northern Africa, in the EU’s “south flank”, and with Spain having the only external land borders between the European bloc and the African continent, Felipe VI said that “in the current geopolitical situation, it would be excessively simplistic, even shortsighted, to consider that a crisis is limited to the geographical location of events”.

“Any threat to the south flank is also a threat to the north flank. A threat to the eastern flank is also a threat to the western flank. And vice versa,” added the Spanish Head of State, who spoke in Finland, in the European “North Wing” and NATO, the organization of cooperation and defence to which the country, with borders with Russia, joined in 2023.

Felipe VI added that this is why Spain has troops or has already announced more troops on European and NATO missions in countries such as Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Finland.

“To strengthen surveillance, deterrence and rapid reaction in the Arctic region and the extreme north,” he stressed.

“ They are defending our border, our unique border, our shared border,” he added, before saying that he believes “firmly in loyalty between true friends and allies” and has no doubt “that any threat against what is called the southern border would be faced with equal solidarity, determination and effectiveness by all Member States”.

Last week, when he received French President Emmanuel Macron in Madrid, Felipe VI had already asked for more cooperation from EU Member States in the face of the “mass intrusion of tens of thousands of people in Ceuta”, remembering that this is also a European border.

“ The countries that bear the greatest pressure because they are located on the external border of the European Union cannot face a responsibility that belongs to everyone alone,” he warned.

The Spanish King stressed the need for more effectiveness and solidarity “in protecting the EU’s external border”.

“What happened in Ceuta this summer, the mass intrusion of tens of thousands of people violating a Spanish border that is also a European border, is unacceptable and represents a huge challenge, from the point of view of security, public order and humanitarian issue,” the monarch warned.

This should result in increased cooperation between Member States in terms of resources and cooperation, he argued.

The autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta, located in northern Africa, is a small territory of 80,000 inhabitants located in the northern end of Morocco, bathed by the Strait of Gibraltar, and is one of the two land borders between Africa and Europe, along with the other Spanish enclave of Melilla.

At the end of July more than 70,000 people entered Ceuta illegally within 24 hours, in an episode that the Spanish Government considered an attack on Spain's territorial integrity and an attack on the EU itself.