Italy extends the suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain by a further 15 days. Madrid: “It’s a disgrace”

The row over migrants between Rome and Madrid continues. Italy has in fact decided to extend controls “at air and sea borders with Spain” for a further 15 days in relation to the crisis in Ceuta. Following the announcement, the Spanish government not only responded in kind by informing the European Union of its decision to extend controls at air and sea borders between the two countries by a further fifteen days, but also strongly criticised Italy’s decision: “It is absurd, it is pointless and it is a disgrace,” Spain’s Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, told the Senate, according to the newspaper El País. “It undermines the spirit and philosophy of what it means to be European partners.” According to the minister, the decision by the government led by Giorgia Meloni represents “an attack on the dignity of the Spanish people”. Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani responded to his counterpart on X: “Italy is applying European rules and treaties with the sole aim of defending the security of its borders and its citizens. The Spanish government’s reaction to Italy’s decision to proceed with the suspension of Schengen therefore appears misplaced, inappropriate and unnecessarily aggressive.”

This morning, therefore, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, took the decision to extend the suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain and communicated this in a note addressed to the European Commission and his counterparts across the EU. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the measure was deemed necessary following assessments carried out by the Committee for the Analysis of Immigration and Border Security, which met earlier in the day. Indeed, there remain “high levels of risk to internal security, as well as a potential threat linked to possible terrorist infiltration”. Following the Italian government’s decision, as mentioned earlier, Spain has done the same. A statement from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior reads: “Border controls were reintroduced by Spain on 8 August and extended for the first time until 23 September. The government considers that the circumstances which led to the adoption of this measure still exist and has therefore decided to extend it until 8 October, it being understood that a change in these circumstances may make it appropriate to amend the scheduled deadline.”

Following the migration crisis in Ceuta at the end of July, when around 70,000 migrants entered the Spanish exclave, the Italian government decided to reinstate air and sea border controls with Spain from 1 August until the end of the month. On that day, the suspension of the Schengen Agreement was extended for a further two weeks. On that date, the considerations underlying the measure were communicated by the Minister of the Interior to his Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during a constructive telephone discussion. In response, Spain decided to extend for two weeks the checks on passengers who “enter the national territory by sea or air from Italy”.