The European Commission has strong reservations about the Spanish government’s announcement that it will grant legal status to about 500,000 irregular migrants, three EU officials told Euronews, worried it could conflict with the European Union’s current policy.

The decision was announced at the end of January and affects people who have entered the country before 31 December 2025. To be eligible, undocumented foreigners must have been living in Spain for at least five months, or have asked for asylum before the end of 2025.

The new decree will provide beneficiaries with a one-year residence permit and the right to work in any sector everywhere in Spain, to strengthen the government’s objective of “economic growth and social cohesion”, Migration Minister Elma Saiz told the Spanish public broadcast RTVE at the time.

The move by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government has met with disapproval in Brussels.

{snip}

According to sources in Brussels, one of the main worries concerns the possibility that with their new status, the regularised migrants would be able to travel across Europe for a maximum of 90 days every 180 days. The worry is that this could result in some people trying to take up residence in other EU countries without permission.

EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner will address the European Parliament on the issue on Tuesday afternoon, during a debate titled “Spain’s large-scale regularisation policy and its impact on the Schengen Area and EU migration policy”.

{snip}

Spain’s choice seems to be cutting across most other European countries’ attempts to reduce access to international protection for non-EU nationals and increase the number of returns to countries of origin.

{snip}

The post EU Commission Balks at Sánchez’s Regularisation of Undocumented Migrants appeared first on American Renaissance.