Border checks with Spain extended by 15 days: now until September 15, Madrid does the same

Air and sea border checks between Italy and Spain will remain in place for another fifteen days, until September 15. The Interior Ministry announced the extension on August 31, the day the measure was due to expire, and began the notification process to the European Commission (ANSA). What was set to expire yesterday and what remained open were addressed in our August 30 report.

The rationale for the move, according to the Interior Ministry’s statement, is the persistence of the factors that had led to the reintroduction of checks on August 1, in line with the analysis of the Immigration and Border Security Analysis Committee (Italpress, carried by Il Pubblicista). In the same text, the ministry states that it also took into account initiatives launched by Spain and the European Union to normalize the situation in the Ceuta area: the decision, therefore, does not disregard those initiatives but deems them not yet sufficient to lift the measure. Matteo Piantedosi described “the 15-day extension of the suspension of the Schengen treaty” with Spain as necessary (Lo Speciale).

On the bilateral front, the Interior Minister communicated his assessments to his Spanish counterpart Fernando Grande-Marlaska in a phone call that the Interior Ministry describes as constructive (ANSA). However, the advance notice did not change Madrid’s response: Spain’s Interior Ministry in turn announced a further fifteen-day extension of checks on passengers arriving in Spain from Italy by sea or air, a measure introduced on August 8 (Adnkronos). The two decisions therefore share the same duration and were finalized on the same day: the symmetry has recurred at every stage of the affair, with the Spanish measure offset by one week relative to the Italian one.

The contextual data released yesterday concerns Ceuta: according to Spanish government estimates, around 5,000 migrants are still believed to be in the city (La Milano). This is a government estimate, not a census, and should be read as such: none of today’s sources indicates a survey method or a historical series that would allow one to say whether the number is rising or falling.

A limitation regarding sourcing should be noted. The contents of the Italian decision — duration, rationale, notification to Brussels, call with Madrid — all trace back to the Interior Ministry’s statement, picked up by several news agencies: on the Italian side, the source remains singular, and no independent verification of the text notified to the Commission is currently available. The Spanish extension, by contrast, was announced by Madrid’s Interior Ministry, a separate source.

A question already raised on August 30 remains publicly unanswered: none of yesterday’s communications indicates what conditions would need to be met for the checks not to be renewed, nor whether the European Commission has raised any observations on the previous notifications. The next deadline is September 15, the expiry date of the extension notified to the European Commission; the mirroring measure announced by Madrid falls due on the same date.