Row between UK and Spain as PM 'demands summit focus on migration'

Tensions flare between Britain and Spain as Rishi Sunak ‘demands focus on illegal migration’ at next week’s summit of European leaders – but Madrid wants to discuss AI

Tensions have flared between Britain and Spain ahead of an upcoming European summit as Rishi Sunak demands a focus on illegal migration, it has emerged.

The latest meeting of the European Political Community next week will see leaders from 47 countries gather in Granada.

The Prime Minister is reportedly pushing for the summit to make illegal migration its top priority as he grapples with the small boats crisis in the Channel.

But the Spanish hosts are said to be resisting the demand and instead want the meeting to focus on Artificial Intelligence, the war in Ukraine and graduate mobility.

According to the Telegraph, French officials have been drafted in to mediate in the diplomatic row between Britain and Spain.

Tensions have flared between Britain and Spain ahead of an upcoming European summit as Rishi Sunak is reportedly demanding a focus on illegal migration

The Prime Minister is reportedly pushing for the European Political Community meeting to make illegal migration its top priority as he grapples with the small boats crisis in the Channel

But Mr Sunak appears to be losing a battle to get European leaders to discuss the subject at next week’s EPC summit in Granada, which is home to the Alhambra palace

‘The British are starting to cause havoc over the next EPC,’ a foreign diplomatic source told the newspaper.

‘They want to overhaul the entire agenda to replace it with migration, which is not planned today.

‘They are taking advantage of what’s happened in the Mediterranean to try and impose their own agenda on the Channel.’

A second European diplomat said the UK had ‘pushed’ for the agenda to be switched, but said the efforts were ‘not going to go anywhere’.

The European Political Community – the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron – was formed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

It brings together both European Union member states and those European nations that are outside the Brussels-based bloc.

Former PM Liz Truss attended the first EPC summit in Prague last October, while Mr Sunak made a trip to Moldova in June for its second gathering.

Speaking at that meeting, Mr Sunak stressed how he was ‘putting tackling illegal migration top of the international agenda’.

He had previously used a Council of Europe summit in Iceland in May to push for cooperation on tackling the issue.

But the PM appears to be losing a battle to get European leaders to return to the subject at next week’s EPC summit in Granada, which is home to the Alhambra palace.

A senior UK government source claimed Spain had been consistently uninterested in discussing how to tackle illegal migration.

‘They are the least interested of all the European countries on this issue,’ they told the newspaper.

EU member states are set to use a European Council summit towards the end of next month to discuss their own growing challenges with illegal migration.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni recently welcomed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, which has seen a recent surge in migrant arrivals.

According to the EU Council website, the EPC meeting on 5 October will see leaders discuss how to make Europe more ‘resilient, prosperous and geostrategic’.

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