Italy extends 15-day border controls with Spain over Ceuta crisis
The Meloni Government extends until 15 September the temporary suspension of Schengen with Spain, in a deal between Piantedosi and Tajani.
Rome extends two-week Schengen controls on flights and ships from Spain
Italy has decided to prolong border verifications for passengers arriving by air and sea from Spain for a further 15 days. The temporary suspension of the Schengen Area between the two countries, activated on 1 August following the migration crisis in Ceuta, was due to expire on Monday 31 August, but the Government of Giorgia Meloni has opted to maintain it until 15 September. The measure, reported ahead of time by La Vanguardia, is the result of an internal debate that pitted the Interior and Foreign Ministers against each other.
The Italian Government's initial intention was to extend controls for a full month, but after a meeting held on Monday morning between Meloni, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a middle-ground solution of two weeks was reached on grounds of a technical nature. Piantedosi had argued for lifting the measure, while Tajani and Meloni herself favoured maintaining it. The 15-day extension was the compromise.
The Italian Interior Ministry formally justified the decision on the grounds of the "persistence of the assessment factors that led to its reintroduction on 1 August", although it acknowledged "the initiatives already undertaken by Spain, together with the European Union, so that the situation in that area can move towards a future normalisation". Piantedosi communicated the reasons for the extension to his Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in what the Italian ministry described as "a constructive telephone conversation". Piantedosi himself openly expressed his hope that this would be "the last extension".
Spain's response: immediate reciprocity
Madrid responded immediately and symmetrically. The Spanish Interior Ministry announced that it would also extend for 15 days the controls on passengers arriving by sea or air from Italy. Spain had instituted these verifications on 8 August, following the Italian decision, in a reaction that Meloni at the time interpreted as retaliation. According to the Interior Ministry, until Sunday 1,066 flights had been monitored and 12,337 passengers checked, with 1,788 officers deployed in the operation.
Rome also took stock of its first month of controls. Since 1 August, passenger records for almost 500,000 people were verified and more than 180,000 travellers from Spain were identified upon entry into Italy. The result was 31 rejections at the border — eight of Moroccan citizens — and six arrests. None of the people intercepted came from Ceuta, figures that demonstrate the limited practical impact of the measure after a month of implementation.
Harder voices within the ruling bloc
Piantedosi's conciliatory tone contrasts with that of sectors closer to Meloni. Carlo Fidanza, head of the Brothers of Italy delegation in the European Parliament and close to Vox, has denounced the existence of "traffickers who organise transfers to mainland Spain" and the "risk of jihadist infiltration". "In this context, Italy has a duty to defend its borders," he argues. The outstanding question is how the risks that Rome invokes to maintain controls could disappear in merely 15 days.
For now, the Italian Government clings to a formal argument: as long as the "situation of interest for National Security" remains in force in Ceuta — the so-called "unified command" decreed by Pedro Sánchez's Government — Rome considers that the exceptional circumstances justifying the verifications persist. The problem is that this mechanism, which establishes strengthened coordination of administrations under the direction of the Spanish Executive, is in principle set to remain in force until 31 December. The two-week extension will hardly resolve the conflict on its own.
The October European Council on the horizon
Within Meloni's Executive there is moreover a temptation to keep the dispute open at least until the next European Council, scheduled for 15 and 16 October. Rome could then attempt to isolate Sánchez again on migration matters, drawing on the initiative promoted by Italy and Denmark following the mass entry into Ceuta, backed by some twenty other European leaders who called for a coordinated response at European level to the crisis.
However, sources from the Spanish Government warn that this strategy could become a double-edged sword. Italy has another migration front open in Brussels: that of the so-called "Dubliners", asylum seekers who, according to European rules on which Member State should process each application, can be transferred to the responsible country — in many cases that of first entry into the EU. Germany and Austria have begun this summer to reactivate those transfers to Italy, which for years remained practically suspended.
Spain, by contrast, despite also being in a position to request these transfers, has so far opted not to do so, an attitude that Piantedosi himself has publicly recognised as a gesture of de-escalation. Spanish sources warn that this position could change if Meloni maintains the confrontation with Madrid over Ceuta.
The game between Rome and Madrid is far from being resolved by a 15-day extension.
Source: La Vanguardia