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Reposted by Camino Mortera

Centre for European Reform @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

🎙️It is time for #Schengen to have its ‘Whatever it takes’ moment: both European countries and their adversaries should know that Schengen is here to stay and that it will be defended when necessary. #CERpodcast with @caminomortera.bsky.social & @cerianbond.bsky.social Listen here: buff.ly/7FTFb0v

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Reposted by Camino Mortera

Centre for European Reform @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Ceuta was not a migration crisis, but a crisis of trust. Europe's leaders should stop weaponising #Schengen against each other lest the EU’s adversaries copy them. New @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight by @caminomortera.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/4EPyJMj

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Reposted by Camino Mortera

Centre for European Reform @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

🎙️ In #Ceuta, European countries have used #Schengen against each other, instead of trying to defend it. This will not have been unnoticed in Washington, Rabat, Beijing or Moscow. 🎙️ New #CERpodcast with @caminomortera.bsky.social & @cerianbond.bsky.social Listen here: buff.ly/7FTFb0v

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

* Non resident because I live in Africa now!

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

A short thread below. On a more personal note, this marks my return to @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social as a non resident* associate fellow. I will be publishing a piece on this very soon. And many more to come!

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The world is not a nice place right now. If the members of Schengen cannot work together to protect it, then Europe is short of extending an invitation to all our adversaries. /Ends

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

To be clear, Spain is by no means a victim in this story. Madrid retaliated to Italy's absurd border controls (have you ever seen anyone crossing by foot from Ceuta to Milan Malpensa airport?). And it still refuses to apportion responsibility to Morocco.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

What happens when they know they can simply test the resilience of Schengen and everything that will happen is that member countries will use it against each other? And what role do EU institutions have if they don't forcefully defend one of Europe's most cherished achievements?

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In Ceuta, none of these elements were present. Which is dangerous not only for the stability of the Schengen area, but for the integrity of the European continent. Think about it: most of our adversaries, and some friends, have territorial claims over Europe now.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Third, it needs to be credible: both outsiders and insiders should know that countries would do "Whatever It Takes" to defend it.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Second, it needs to be defensible: those outside of it should be willing, and able, to defend it.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

First, Schengen needs to be definitive: those outside of it need to know where the border is and what would happen if they try to cross it without permission.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My main point is that Schengen is not a normal border: it has no army to defend it, no precise frontiers and no political community who feels strongly about identity. Schengen only works because is based on three elements, all of which require trust.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I also look at what could be done the next time a crisis happens. Because they will continue to happen. Schengen is resilient enough. Trust amongst member-states is not.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It has been more than a month since 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in 48 hours. In Spain, the crisis is far from over. But what are the consequences for Schengen? In this podcast, I explain what happened, why and what it means to Europe's borderless area.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I wrote it here, too. bsky.app/profile/cami...

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

that everything is connected. And that we do best when we divide tasks. Want to help Ukraine win? Think about the southern border. Our adversaries understand this. When will we?

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

What that absence reflects is the EU’s conscious decision to move away from Africa. Because most of our foreign policy resources now point at the very real Russian threat, we have lost sight of the rest of the world.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Morocco and the border are such low-hanging fruit for the Trump administration that it is frankly ridiculous they never feature in discussions about the EU’s borders. Or about the EU’s relations with the US.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

With very little help from Brussels. To be fair, this suited both Spain and the EU. But there is now a new and unexpected adversary in the mix: the US.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Meanwhile, because the EU still has not understood that being a real global player means being everywhere, always, all the time, the west-southern border has been outsourced to whatever Spain could or would do in its tricky relations with the Moroccan-Algerian tandem.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Because the Russian invasion of Ukraine has dominated EU politics for four years, rightly if not always proportionately, adversaries using our borders for hybrid warfare suddenly became a thing. Again, rightly so.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

At the time, the instrumentalisation of migration was a politically incorrect thing to say, so nobody said it. Fast forward to the Eastern flank in the early 2020s.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Merkel’s unilateral decision may have been right morally. It was not right legally, and still less politically. It signalled to anyone who wanted to use migration against the EU that the border was not truly shared.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

But nobody has ever said the EU, or rather the Schengen area, would do “whatever it takes” to protect it. During the 2015-16 migration crisis, someone said the exact opposite: “Wir schaffen das.”

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The most important thing about Schengen is that it’s a shared border without a state behind it. Rather like the euro: a currency without one either.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Hoy ha salido otra vez el tema de los interruptores.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Podríamos, y deberíamos, tener una conversación pública sosegada sobre dónde estamos, y donde queremos ir, en un mundo cada vez más dominado por la fuerza. Un debate pragmático, sin dramas. Nuestros aliados lo tienen bastante claro. Por mucho que no nos guste.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Otra cosa diferente es que, como rara vez se habla de política internacional de manera seria, ni en el Congreso ni en ningún lado, no sea sencillo, ni para los españoles, ni para sus gobernantes, diferenciar entre intereses partidistas y nacionales.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Nuestro peso histórico, económico, militar y cultural no deberían permitirnos esta abulia en la que llevamos instalados más de un siglo.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Un estado que nos proporciona una falsa protección contra los acontecimientos mundiales. Que nos obliga a no posicionarnos, no alzar la voz y, por tanto, comportarnos como un socio menor en nuestras coaliciones.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Se puede ser crítico con Trump e incluso se puede ser crítico con el Gobierno. Yo lo soy con ambos. Pero sacudámonos la idea de que España no puede, ni debe, pintar nada en política exterior. Es falaz y contribuye a alargar el estado de estupor en el que entramos a principios del S. XX.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

España es miembro de la OTAN y uno de los cinco mayores países de la UE. Debe actuar como tal, no porque lo diga Francia ni por no enfadar a Alemania. El apoyo a Chipre es parte de las obligaciones que adquirimos soberanamente. Cumplir con los compromisos de la OTAN, también.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Si no sabes qué opina España sobre cualquier tema europeo, siempre haz lo que diga Francia y no contradigas a Alemania. Durante demasiado tiempo, esa fue, casi exclusivamente, nuestra posición en la UE. Muchos trabajamos para cambiarla. No deberíamos volver atrás.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

A great essay by Charles Grant, where he dares questioning the zeitgeist: the going may be tough, but there are reasons to be optimistic about Europe. Europe’s future: Grounds for hope? - Annual report 2025 www.cer.eu/about/annual...

cer.eu

Europe’s future: Grounds for hope? - Annual report 2025

The CER's annual report features an essay which analyses the many problems the EU faces, but concludes that it is not doomed.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Surely you guys have already discussed at lenght her seminal experience with the Rome Club first report about sustainable economics and I am just never here to have been part of that conversation.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Utterly late to this, but I am only at Merkel in her late 20s in ‘Freedom’ and this book is already teaching me more about the geopolitics of Europe over the past 20 years than any brainy conference or paper would.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

(As I used to rant about back in Madrid, mostly to deaf ears: to be a leader, you need to have followers.)

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Fair piece, from an informed stand-point. We have been right on a number of issues (NATO’s random baseline target, Palestine, Ukraine), but we have been bad at building alliances, because Spain is still not doing foreign policy well.

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Camino Mortera @caminomortera.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Now that I finally got some time to sit down this year, I am at last diving into this. As a Brussels veteran, I’ve been wary to open it. I have always had a complicated relationship with Merkel’s European legacy. Wonder whether this book will help.

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