Reinsalu calls Schengen suspension for Spain rational

Isamaa leader Urmas Reinsalu has backed suspending Spain’s participation in the Schengen agreement, saying the measure could help curb illegal migration, ERR reported. Estonia’s Interior Minister Igor Taro has opposed isolating Spain and said it should instead be supported during the crisis.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that Italy had temporarily suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain following an influx of migrants into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Morocco.

Estonia does not support ending Schengen arrangements with Spain. Taro wrote on social media that doing so would amount to betraying an ally in the European Union and NATO.

“We should be thinking about how to help and support Spain, not discussing how to leave it isolated,” Taro said. He compared the migration pressure supported by Morocco with the pressure Finland experienced from Russia and the Baltic states, including Estonia, have experienced from Belarus.

Reinsalu disagreed, saying several countries had tightened border controls because they feared a migration flow from Spain and wanted to pressure Madrid to act more decisively to protect the European Union’s external border.

“Estonia should stand in solidarity with countries demanding decisive action from Spain to protect the European Union’s external border, not the encouragement of migration,” Reinsalu wrote.

He called suspending a member state’s Schengen status “a completely rational method” of creating new barriers to illegal migration in a critical situation when a country is unable to cope and is itself encouraging illegal migration.

Reinsalu said that maintaining the Schengen area required a firm approach towards Spain. He argued that successfully entering the European Union through a migration attack must not create a basis for admission, and called for discussions with like-minded countries on member states’ obligations to prevent illegal migration and the consequences of failing to do so.

“The starting point is clear: breaking the law when entering Europe must not create rights,” Reinsalu said, adding that the solution was not the relocation of refugees.

Finland’s Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, a member of the nationalist Finns Party, also sharply criticised Spain on Friday over its inability to control its border in Ceuta. She said countries that failed to protect the external border should not belong to the Schengen area.

France is also tightening controls on the French-Spanish border.