EURACTIV
Oil on troubled waters
Spanish Government) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
The influx of migrants that entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta – an exclave surrounded by Morocco on the north coast of Africa – has left many unanswered questions as to what motivated so many thousands to make the journey at that time.
Details have yet to emerge about the part played by online misinformation, and whether the arrival of predominantly Moroccan nationals was aided by Rabat. But rather than wait for the circumstances leading up to Thursday and Friday's crisis – in which at least 88 people died – to become clearer, European leaders were piling criticism on Pedro Sánchez.
Spain's Prime Minister was shafted for laxity in controlling European borders, despite Ceuta not being attached to mainland Europe and none of the approximately 60,000 entrants being transferred across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Iberian Peninsula. Italy and Denmark were especially scathing, coordinating letters of disapproval that were sent to the European Commission over the weekend.
On Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attempted to thread a diplomatic line between praising Sánchez, while acknowledging the concerns raised by national leaders, arguing that the crisis should serve as a catalyst for tougher EU migration controls.
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The Brief – Oil on troubled waters
The Ceuta crisis sent shockwaves through Europe's political class
Euractiv
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez visits Ceuta
Pedro Sanchez visits Ceuta following an attempted sea crossing by migrants from Morocco on July 31, 2026. [Spanish Government) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images]
The influx of migrants that entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta – an exclave surrounded by Morocco on the north coast of Africa – has left many unanswered questions as to what motivated so many thousands to make the journey at that time.
Details have yet to emerge about the part played by online misinformation, and whether the arrival of predominantly Moroccan nationals was aided by Rabat. But rather than wait for the circumstances leading up to Thursday and Friday’s crisis – in which at least 88 people died – to become clearer, European leaders were piling criticism on Pedro Sánchez.
Spain’s Prime Minister was shafted for laxity in controlling European borders, despite Ceuta not being attached to mainland Europe and none of the approximately 60,000 entrants being transferred across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Iberian Peninsula. Italy and Denmark were especially scathing, coordinating letters of disapproval that were sent to the European Commission over the weekend.
On Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attempted to thread a diplomatic line between praising Sánchez, while acknowledging the concerns raised by national leaders, arguing that the crisis should serve as a catalyst for tougher EU migration controls.
Roundup
Europe’s race for gene-edited crops – Often described as “molecular scissors”, New Genomic Techniques are a new generation of breeding technologies that allow scientists to make precise changes to DNA. After years of political wrangling, the EU is now set to relax rules so that plants obtained with certain NGTs and involving limited genetic changes will be regulated in the same way as conventionally bred varieties.
Political thriller in Europa building – The critically-acclaimed French political thriller Baron Noir has chosen the inauspicious setting of the European Council’s Europa building in Brussels as a location for the show’s fourth season. A crew is staging a night-time EU summit in the very same third-floor room where leaders usually meet.
Let the markets decide on Chinese AI – European policymakers should not ban Chinese AI models, nor should they promote them. Their task is not to pick a foreign winner: it is to keep the market open, price the risks honestly, and spend its scarce political capital building strength at home, argues Alicia García Herrero in her latest column.
Across Europe
Hungary gets backup energy from EU grid – Hungary has urged households to curb electricity use after its only nuclear power plant was forced offline by low water levels on the Danube, leaving the country increasingly reliant on imports from neighbouring EU states. To offset the loss of generation, Hungary has roughly doubled electricity imports from neighbouring countries since last week, with most additional power flowing from Czechia.
Germany to reconsider funding weight-loss drugs – France has started reimbursing modern weight-loss drugs, while Germany has so far maintained that they are too expensive. But the chair of the national health expert body said in an interview on Sunday that “It would certainly be worth considering health insurance coverage for weight-loss drugs under certain conditions.”
Busting the shadow fleet – A warship from the EU’s naval mission in the Mediterranean on Sunday boarded a sanctioned tanker linked to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” as part of a verification operation west of the Italian island of Pantelleria. Italian authorities said the ship’s captain initially refused to provide the requested cooperation. An Italian boarding team was subsequently deployed by helicopter from the Thaon di Revel to carry out the inspection.
Aug 3, 2026 - 17:55
Last updated: Aug 3, 2026 - 18:00
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