Morocco has presented a diplomatic censure last week against the vice president of the European Commission. Margaritis Schinas has repeatedly defended that the two autonomous North African cities are Spanish and European Union borders.

The tone of Rabat's complaint, as interpreted in the European Union, has not been seen as very diplomatic. "It is not the behavior that is expected, of respect and subtlety, of a country that receives great aid with whom it gives it," say sources in Brussels.