The extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers was not the showdown many anticipated, but a delicate exercise in political balance. The meeting, requested by 22 Member States at the initiative of Italy and Denmark following the Ceuta migration crisis, ended with a declaration of principles but, as expected, without concrete decisions. Italy eased tensions with Pedro Sánchez’s government but now proposes that the EU lead the relationship with Morocco to contain migratory surges at the southern border.

The spokesperson for Junts in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, warned this Tuesday that they will not give “a single vote” to the Government if Catalonia is not excluded from the transfer to the autonomous communities of unaccompanied minor migrants who arrived in Ceuta during last week’s migration crisis.