Spain urges Italy to lift border controls before Monday

Spain has urged Italy to lift border controls introduced after the migrant crisis in Ceuta and restore normal Schengen arrangements before Monday, warning it will take "proper measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens" if no action is taken.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Spanish Government called on Italy to reverse the controls, describing how they had been introduced unilaterally after the events in Ceuta and had disrupted the movement of thousands of passengers while creating legal uncertainty during the summer travel season.

"For that reason, we urge Italy to rectify, to end up border controls and to treat Spanish citizens as the rest of Europeans."

Spain said the decision had no recent historical precedent and that had been adopted without prior notice and on "false arguments" that were not consistent with the Schengen Borders Code.

The statement also rejected the justification for the controls, adding that migrants who arrived irregularly in Ceuta could not freely enter the Schengen area because the autonomous city operates under a special regime.

It added that almost all of those migrants had already returned to Morocco.

Spain said that, according to Frontex, Italy has recorded more irregular border crossings than any other EU member state in recent years, with figures it said were double those of Spain.

The statement also said Italy had failed to comply with the Dublin Regulation since 2022, and that this had increased migratory pressure on other European Union member states.

The Dublin Regulation determines which EU country is responsible for examining an asylum application, generally assigning responsibility to the first member state through which an asylum seeker enters the bloc.

Spain contrasted Italy's actions with its own approach, saying it had never introduced border controls on Italy despite supporting the country during previous migration pressures, including by accepting some migrants who arrived in Lampedusa in 2023 and regularly opening its ports to migrants rescued on the central Mediterranean route.

The Spanish Government described Italy's measures as "unfair, contradictory to the EU interests, and discriminatory to the Spanish population."

It called on the Italian authorities to reverse the decision before Monday.

The statement concluded: "We trust that Europeism, common sense and good will prevail here."

"Governments are for pushing understanding among countries and general interest among their populations, not to generate fractures and sterile conflicts pushed by internal electoral reasons."