Denmark's PM calls on EU to scrutinise Spain's plan to legalise 500,000 undocumented migrants

Mette Frederiksen used an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, 16 October 2026 to ask the European Commission to examine Spain’s plan to grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants. The request put a long-running dispute between Denmark and Spain at the centre of the leaders’ meeting.

Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, leads a group of European countries that has been strongly critical of Spain’s immigration policy. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is part of the group.

“I have asked the commission to look into if one country does the complete opposite of what we others do. That is, one comes illegally to a country and suddenly one can get permission to be there legally, then I believe that goes against the immigration policy that has broad support in Europe today. I have asked the commission to look further into that,” Frederiksen said.

The dispute concerns Spain’s regularisation scheme for undocumented migrants. Spain decided to open for legalisation of over one million undocumented migrants. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, approved a decree to regularise around 500,000 undocumented migrants and has defended the scheme as compatible with human rights, integration and economic growth.

The argument had been building for months. In June, Frederiksen and Sánchez reportedly exchanged heated words at a previous EU summit over Spain’s scheme.

Then, in August, leaders of 22 EU countries sent a joint letter after thousands of migrants sought entry to Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the border with Morocco. The letter said: “We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, exploitation of migration or other hybrid threats to create a perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible. That a migrant's illegal entry can lead to legal residence.”

On Friday morning, 16 EU countries backed stricter migration restrictions after a breakfast meeting. Denmark, Poland and Italy sought to link migration with crime in draft summit conclusions. France and Luxembourg criticised the position of the 16 countries.

The latest draft conclusions did not mention Spain’s regularisation plan, though EU leaders were expected to debate migration over lunch.

Sánchez said Spain’s scheme “does not go against the grain” because many countries have similar measures. He added: “One thing is the rhetoric, the blablabla, and another thing is the facts.”

Andrej Babiš, the Czech prime minister and a member of the far-right Patriots for Europe group, said: “See what is happening in Spain - some politicians are willing to replace the population only so they can be... in government.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Frederiksen’s request had been heard. “Decisions to legalize irregular migrants are national decisions. But it can have significance across Schengen countries. Therefore one must coordinate it in the Schengen cooperation,” she said.

Von der Leyen said there was already a mechanism for exchanging information about legalisation decisions. “But we can strengthen the existing Schengen tools. The commission will help with that,” she said.