The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, will travel together to Mauritania this Thursday to meet with its president, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and join forces to strengthen cooperation with the African country, point of origin of eight out of every ten cayucos that currently arrive in the Canary Islands. The community executive is currently “in full construction” of “an aid package” from the EU budget that will be around 200 million euros, according to community sources. The Spanish Government also plans to put a “powerful” amount of funds on the table to assist the country, according to diplomatic sources, which will also be announced during the visit.
The trip of Sánchez and Von der Leyen paves the way for the eventual signing of a strategic association agreement like the one signed by the community executive with Tunisia, which combines aid for migration management and border control with specific financial provisions to promote investment projects, an approach promoted by President Von der Leyen that fits with the policy defended by the Spanish Government of combining agreements on security and immigration with investments in the countries of origin and transit of immigrants to create opportunities economic conditions in Africa that discourage irregular departures.
It is not the first time that the Commission and the Government have visited the region together to make European action in the region visible, but the visit takes place at a time of maximum urgency for Spain in the face of the rise in irregular arrivals. The January figures break all existing records in the Canary Islands and place Spain as the main access route to Europe: during the first month of the year, 7,270 people arrived in the Canary Islands, as many people as during the entire first half of 2023 together , an increase of 1,184% compared to last year. Meanwhile, during the same period, 2,268 people arrived in Italy. Mauritania has quickly become the main country of departure for the cayucos, a situation directly related to the reinforcement of controls in Senegal and the instability in Mali.
“Mauritania is the only democracy in that area of ??Africa and we have to support it” in the face of the “delicate” context that exists in the Sahel region, Sánchez stressed today in an interview with La Sexta reported by Europa Press. “We have to strengthen it as we are doing, but not only at a bilateral level but also with the European Union.” In October, it was the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for immigration, Margaritis Schinas, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who visited the country to help the authorities strengthen the fight against trafficking mafias, a visit during which announced aid of 10 million euros to promote sustainable fishing.
For the moment, the European Commission has limited itself to explaining that during the official visit this Thursday to Nouakchott they will talk about the “partnership between Europe and Mauritania, especially in energy and digital matters within the framework of the Global Gateway program, as well as the cooperation on immigration and security,” explained its spokesperson Arianna Podesta. Last year, following the visit of Von der Leyen and the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the Commission signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tunisia that contemplates different cooperation projects worth more than 1 billion euros, including an item of 110 million destined exclusively for security. The pact was the subject of controversy with the Twenty-Seven due to the limited information received before the signing of the agreement and the slow translation of economic cooperation into a reduction in irregular departures from the Tunisian coast.