00:00There was no real criticism because there we can't see a direct link at the moment between the regularization and
00:07the incidents in Ceuta.
00:12But I always say to this regularization discussion, it's not a good signal, definitely not.
00:18It's not a good signal for the rest of Europe.
00:20I do understand, and it's a member state's competence, and I do understand that Spain did it because it's mainly
00:26about Latin Americans speaking the same language,
00:29having the same culture, but the signal for the rest of Europe is not a good one, definitely not.
00:36And from the first moment, of course, what we did as a commission, we offered support to Spain, both financially
00:43and operationally,
00:47and this includes emergency financial assistance to strengthen the protection of the external border in Ceuta,
00:54also supporting returns, of course, and also to prevent movements to the European Union.
01:03In terms of support from our agencies, Frontex is already on the ground with more than 30 people in Ceuta,
01:12and, of course, is, of course, ready to do more also, and also other EU agencies like Europol, like our
01:21asylum agency, stand ready to assist Spain.
01:26We need to use our leverage in a more effective way, be it trade, be it visa policy, be it
01:34development assistance,
01:36and we are currently in the process of negotiating, actually, a strategic, comprehensive partnership agreement with Morocco,
01:44and, of course, the topic of migration is one of the core elements of this agreement.
01:51Yes, let's focus on return hubs, that's legitimate, and that's a task of the member states to do it, the
01:58ones who want to do it,
01:59but also focus on the safe third country concept, which means that the asylum procedure can actually be done outside
02:06the European Union,
02:07which, where the safe third country concept allows for that.
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