By Moha Ennaji

Published Aug 11, 2026, 12:26 pm KST

FEZ — The sight of 72,000 people surging into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco served as a stark reminder that one of the European Union's most sensitive land borders lies in North Africa.

The status of Ceuta and Melilla — another Spanish enclave situated within Moroccan territory — has fueled a simmering political dispute between Rabat and Madrid for decades. Morocco asserts sovereignty over both cities, while Spain insists they are integral parts of its national territory, no less than Madrid itself. Beyond their political significance, the enclaves function as free ports within the EU customs area, drawing substantial cross-border commerce from the surrounding Moroccan hinterland — an economic interdependence that complicates any effort to impose a clean separation between the two sides.

The historical record is layered. For centuries, Muslim dynasties ruling the western Maghreb and al-Andalus held Ceuta, until King John I of Portugal seized it in 1415 — an early precursor to European overseas expansion. When the Portuguese crown fell under the control of the Spanish Habsburgs in 1580, Ceuta came with it. Even after Portugal regained its independence in 1640, the city chose to remain loyal to the Spanish monarchy.

As the renowned French historian Fernand Braudel observed, the Mediterranean is best understood as a historically interconnected arena, shaped by migratory, commercial, cultural, and political currents that long predate the modern nation-state. Seen from this vantage point, the Strait of Gibraltar is not simply a boundary but a liminal zone linking two shores of the same sea — shores that have been in close, if frequently conflictual, contact for centuries.

To underpin its sovereignty claim, Morocco invokes precolonial history and the enduring authority of the Moroccan Sultan over wide-reaching territories in the western Maghreb. Moroccan historians, notably Abdallah Laroui, have cautioned against mechanically applying the territorial categories of the modern nation-state to precolonial societies.

Indeed, the contemporary European conception of a border — a precisely demarcated, legally codified line — does not always reflect how sovereignty functioned in the Maghreb before colonization. The Sultan's authority operated to varying degrees through ties of allegiance, taxation, religious affiliation, and political loyalty, rather than through uniform administrative oversight. It is against this backdrop, Morocco argues, that its claims regarding Ceuta, Melilla, and other Spanish-held territories on the North African coast should be evaluated.

Following Moroccan independence in 1956, the legacy of colonial-era borders became a central subject of national debate. Moroccan nationalists, led in particular by Sultan Mohamed V, called for the return of territories they believed had been severed from Morocco during the colonial period. This drive unfolded within a broader wave of decolonization, leading Spain to relinquish Tarfaya in 1958 and Sidi Ifni in 1969.

Ceuta and Melilla, however, remained under Spanish control. Over time, these former colonial possessions became part of the EU's external frontier. In recent years, Brussels' efforts to curb migration have elevated the strategic profile of these enclaves, giving them an importance that rivals their longstanding historical and military value. Under successive cooperation agreements, the EU has channeled significant funding to Morocco to help manage irregular migration flows, positioning Rabat as a critical — and sometimes contentious — partner in Europe's border strategy.

This evolving dynamic helps explain the paradox at the heart of the Morocco-Spain relationship. Despite robust economic ties, active trade, and close collaboration on security and migration management, the territorial dispute continues to generate friction. The dispute also intersects with the broader question of Western Sahara, where Morocco's sovereignty claims and Spain's historical role as the former colonial administrator remain an enduring source of diplomatic tension. A study by the University of Cambridge's Jamie Trinidad on Morocco's claims to Spanish territories in Africa underscores that the legal arguments differ for each territory: Ceuta, Melilla, the Chafarinas Islands, and the islet of Perejil are not analogous legal cases. Perejil itself was the site of a brief armed confrontation in 2002, when both countries deployed forces before U.S.-mediated diplomacy defused the standoff — a episode that underscored how quickly the dispute could escalate.

Nevertheless, a resolution is not necessarily beyond reach. Gibraltar — frequently cited in Moroccan political discourse — offers a relevant precedent. The process of defining Gibraltar's status after Brexit demanded close coordination among the United Kingdom, the EU, and Spain. It demonstrated that an entrenched territorial dispute can culminate in joint management arrangements, even when the parties' fundamental positions on sovereignty remain fundamentally opposed.

For Morocco, the lesson is clear: even long-standing territorial disputes can open pathways to cooperation. Such conflicts can be mitigated through gradual negotiations, confidence-building measures, and other instruments that separate — at least temporarily — sovereignty questions from the practical imperatives of daily governance.

Applying such an approach to Ceuta and Melilla would require Europe to acknowledge that border militarization alone cannot resolve the migration challenge, even though borders can still serve as instruments of diplomatic leverage, as recent events have demonstrated. Migration cooperation between Morocco and Spain, the argument goes, should be embedded in a wider strategy encompassing economic development, legal mobility, the dismantling of criminal networks, and the protection of fundamental human rights.

The future of Ceuta and Melilla, from this perspective, should be viewed through the broader framework of Euro-Mediterranean relations — as sites of dialogue, exchange, and cooperation between Africa and Europe, not merely as fortified outposts.

Morocco and Spain are bound by geography and necessity. Their proximity, intertwined economic and human ties, and shared security interests demand a relationship grounded in trust and mutual respect. Resolving the dispute over the two cities will not be straightforward, given each country's deep-rooted claims. Yet the moment may have arrived to pursue a new course built on negotiation rather than confrontation — a shift that could not only redefine bilateral relations but also benefit the wider Mediterranean region.

Moha Ennaji is a professor at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University and the author, most recently, of "Social Movements and Democratization in North Africa 1912–2024" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2026). This article was distributed by Project Syndicate.