(Open Letter to President Ursula von der Leyen on EU–Morocco Cooperation and Migration)
I fully share your commitment to preventing dangerous crossings, protecting human lives, and dismantling the criminal networks that exploit vulnerable people. At the same time, if we are to develop effective and lasting solutions, it is essential that the recent events in Ceuta be assessed with objectivity, transparency, and a clear understanding of the facts.
At this stage, it is important to avoid premature conclusions. The information currently available suggests that these events cannot be attributed solely to the activities of migrant smuggling networks. Rather, they appear to have been triggered by an isolated individual act which, in the particular context of the school holidays, when many young people were out of school, quickly generated a contagion effect and led to a spontaneous movement.
More fundamentally, this episode highlights broader structural realities that deserve our collective attention. Europe is experiencing significant labour shortages across several strategic sectors, while Morocco continues to make remarkable economic progress. Yet, despite this transformation, the pace of job creation has not kept up with the aspirations of an increasingly educated, skilled, and ambitious younger generation.
For this reason, the response cannot rely on security measures alone. It must be rooted in a stronger and more forward-looking partnership between the European Union and Morocco, founded on mutual trust, transparency, and shared responsibility. This means encouraging greater investment that creates sustainable employment, expanding education and vocational training opportunities, developing well-managed legal labour mobility pathways, and maintaining determined action against genuine criminal trafficking networks.
Relations between Morocco and the European Union have long been based on a strategic partnership and a shared commitment to stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean region. In this context, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, rightly observed that Morocco cannot be reduced to the role of “Europe’s policeman.” His remarks reflect an essential principle: migration management is a shared responsibility that requires balanced, transparent, and sustainable cooperation, rather than the outsourcing of responsibility to transit countries.
The Mediterranean should not be regarded as a dividing line between Europe and Africa, but as a common space of partnership, opportunity, and shared prosperity. Lasting solutions to migration cannot be achieved through emotionally driven responses or through an exclusively security-oriented approach. They require a common vision based on evidence, dialogue, and a genuine understanding of the underlying economic, social, and demographic realities.
The future of Euro-Moroccan relations will not be strengthened through mutual accusations or simplified narratives. It will be built through a shared determination to manage mobility responsibly, expand opportunities for young people, foster economic development, and reinforce a neighbourhood founded on stability, prosperity, and mutual confidence.
Migration is neither exclusively a European challenge nor exclusively a Moroccan responsibility. It is a shared challenge that calls for shared solutions. Secure borders remain essential, but border management alone cannot substitute for an ambitious agenda of co-development, legal mobility, investment in human capital, and deeper institutional cooperation.
Beyond the immediate circumstances, this is an opportunity to engage in a more comprehensive dialogue, guided by transparency, mutual respect, and a shared sense of responsibility.
Only by addressing the root causes of migration — economic, social, educational, and human — rather than merely responding to its symptoms, can we build a Mediterranean region that is more stable, more prosperous, and more humane.
Morocco and the European Union have far more to gain by advancing together as equal partners than by shifting responsibility for a phenomenon that transcends national borders. Our common future will depend not only on how effectively we manage migration, but also on how successfully we create opportunities, strengthen cooperation, and reaffirm the values that unite both shores of the Mediterranean.
Respectfully,
Radouan Bachiri
Moroccan Generation
