Spain issues ultimatum to Italy over Schengen checks triggered by Ceuta crisis

Spain has given Italy until the end of Sunday, 9 August, to lift temporary border checks reintroduced on arrivals from Spain, warning of “proportionate measures” if the controls remain in place.

Italy activated the selective internal border controls on 1 August for an initial one-month period, targeting primarily third-country nationals arriving by air or sea from Spain. Rome justified the step as a security response to the late-July influx of more than 70,000 irregular migrants into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco – the largest such entry recorded at border of an EU member state in a short timeframe. Most of those who crossed have since returned to Morocco, but Spanish and EU officials note that several thousand remain in Ceuta, with reception facilities under strain and many unaccompanied minors in local care. Ceuta operates under special Schengen rules that already require checks for travel to the Spanish mainland.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government described the measures as temporary, targeted, and aimed at verifying documents while limiting disruption to EU citizens and summer tourism. Spain has rejected the rationale, calling the checks unjust, unilateral, discriminatory, and incompatible with the Schengen Borders Code, arguing that no migrants from Ceuta entered the free-movement area freely and that the situation posed no wider risk.

Spain strongly objects, calling the decision unilateral, without prior notice, unjust, contrary to EU interests, discriminatory toward Spaniards, and based on arguments incompatible with the Schengen Borders Code and the facts. Madrid stresses that Ceuta migrants could not freely enter the broader Schengen area due to the enclave’s special regime, that nearly all have returned to Morocco, and that the measures create uncertainty and affect thousands of passengers in peak season.

The tensions unfold as the European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the European Parliament sharply criticised the Spanish government for refusing to send its interior and migration ministers to an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) examining the Ceuta migrant surge.

The EPP Group on 6–7 August condemned the decision by Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Migration Minister Elma Saíz not to attend the LIBE hearing convened specifically over the Ceuta events. “The Ceuta crisis cannot simply be declared over while those who entered illegally remain unidentified and serious failures remain unaddressed,” said Dolors Montserrat MEP, Vice-Chair of the EPP Group. “Instead of providing answers today, Sánchez’s ministers chose to snub the European Parliament by refusing to appear and face democratic scrutiny.”

Lena Düpont MEP, EPP spokeswoman on Home Affairs, added that the situation remains critical, with local authorities having issued prior warnings that went unheeded. She stressed that Ceuta constitutes Europe’s external border and that Spain should fully utilise available EU tools, including Frontex, Europol, and the Migration and Asylum Pact, rather than treating the episode as resolved.

EU officials have noted the legal possibility of temporary controls while highlighting Ceuta’s special rules and the lack of onward Schengen entries from the crisis. An EU ministerial discussion after the surge expressed support for Spain’s handling once the immediate situation stabilized.

EU ministers strike conciliatory tone on Ceuta crisis, but intelligence and preparedness gaps linger

The EPP’s sharp criticism of Sánchez, a socialist, has a distinctly ritual quality, reflecting the group’s longstanding pattern of holding centre-left governments to account on migration and border security.

The dual pressures – from Italy’s controls and the parliamentary criticism – highlight that the political and operational fallout from the Ceuta crossings is far from settled.

Caption: Workers reinforce the perimeter fence along the border in Melilla, Spain, 06 August 2026. A week after thousands of migrants breached the border in neighboring Ceuta, prompting military deployments and coordinated returns with Morocco, border operations in Melilla have returned to normality. EPA/GINER