Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal stressed the importance of preserving the EU’s Schengen Area, insisting that creating new internal borders within the free movement area was “in no way in the interests of Estonia or Estonians,” ERR reported. He was responding to reactions to the recent sudden influx of irregular migrants from Morocco to Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta. Michal signed a joint letter of 22 EU member states calling for “an immediate and coordinated European response” to the situation. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna assured “full solidarity” with Spain in protecting the EU’s external border.
Earlier, Urmas Reinsalu, chairman of Estonia’s opposition Fatherland party, argued that suspending the Schengen treaty would be a “rational method” to stop illegal migration, ERR reported. Similarly, Mihhail Kõlvart, chairman of the opposition Estonian Centre Party, stated that imposing temporary border controls in the Schengen Area would be a necessary and justified step, arguing that security was more important than free movement, ERR reported. In a crisis, every country must first look after its own interests, Kõlvart insisted. He asserted that decisions by Spanish authorities and courts had contributed to the incident in Ceuta.