Schengen with Spain, Piantedosi orders third extension of border controls

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi ordered a new 15-day extension of air and sea border controls with Spain on 30 September 2026. This is the third time the Interior Ministry has renewed the suspension of Schengen introduced in August following the Ceuta migration crisis: we last reported on it on 31 August 2026, when the government had ordered a previous fifteen-day extension, Schengen with Spain, the government extends controls by another fifteen days.

Today’s decision comes after Piantedosi consulted the Committee for the analysis of immigration and border security. According to the Interior Ministry, “there are still critical issues” underlying the decision not to reopen unchecked crossings between the two countries.

The Spanish Interior Ministry stated that Madrid will respond with a similar extension of its own controls on arrivals from Italy, replicating the pattern already followed in the previous phases of the matter: an Italian measure followed in short order by a matching Spanish countermeasure.

The mechanism that has been repeating since late August keeps suspended one of the cornerstone freedoms of movement of the Schengen area between two founding countries of the European Union, with close renewals of two weeks each instead of a definitive solution. There is no indication, from the material available today, of a date by which the Interior Ministry plans to end the suspension, nor further details on the critical issues cited in support of the decision.

The news comes from three independent sources: the Interior Ministry statement picked up by Ansa and Sky TG24, and sources from the Spanish Interior Ministry cited by Euronews Italia.