Italy announced on July 30 that it was restoring border controls on travel from Spain, days after more than 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. At least 72 people died in the crossing, while Ceuta President Juan Jesus Vivas said between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants remained in the enclave after most had returned.
The measure does not suspend the Schengen area or remove Spain from it. Because Italy and Spain have no shared land border, the checks affect people travelling between them by air and sea, and analysts and rights groups say the decision is primarily political rather than a practical response to movement from Ceuta.
What Italy’s decision changes
Italy’s action uses the Schengen rules that allow a member state to temporarily restore checks at internal borders. Davide Colombi, a researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies, said one country cannot suspend Schengen or expel another state from the passport-free area. The formal step is the reintroduction of internal controls.
The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 and entered into force a decade later. It removed passport checks at the internal borders of its 29 member states, but temporary controls have become common. The Asylum Information Database says Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden have maintained some form of controls almost continuously since 2015, while nine states kept them throughout 2025.
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Italy and Spain’s lack of a land border limits the measure’s direct connection to the Ceuta arrivals. Colombi said there was no realistic route for people in Ceuta to reach Italy, while ECRE legal officer Eleonora Testi described the decision as the first unilateral restoration of controls prompted by arrivals in a country with which the acting state does not share an internal border.
A political signal inside the EU
The decision quickly gained political backing: 22 EU member states signed a joint letter aligning with Italy’s position. Chiara Catelli of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants called the move political theatre, arguing that it mainly creates difficulties for tourists and other travellers moving from Spain to Italy on Schengen visas.
Analysts link the response to wider disagreements over migration policy. Spain’s socialist government under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pursued a comparatively liberal approach, including economic integration, legal pathways and an invitation for undocumented people to apply for legalisation. More than a million people did so. Poland’s suspension of the right to claim asylum at its Belarus border in March 2025 received a different EU response, with an assistance regulation proposed for Warsaw rather than comparable member-state solidarity.
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The contrast has raised questions about whether EU governments apply common rules consistently when national political interests are involved. Testi said the difference may reflect Spain’s political positions compared with those of many other European states, while the Ceuta crisis has given governments an opportunity to signal tougher migration policies without addressing a direct Italy-Spain border movement.
Why the episode matters for Schengen
For Colombi, the weakening of Schengen predates Ceuta. Internal controls were restored during the 2015 refugee crisis, when more than a million people arrived in the European Union, and Germany and several other countries reinstated checks. Germany restored controls with Poland in 2023 and again in 2025, while Italy has kept controls on its border with Slovenia.
The European Commission issued formal opinions in June 2026 urging nine states that had maintained controls for more than 12 months to phase them out. The guidance has had little visible practical effect. Meanwhile, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum became applicable on June 12, less than six weeks before Italy’s announcement, with the aim of distributing responsibility more fairly across the bloc.
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The unresolved issue is whether emergency powers can continue to expand without a common response. ECRE said the pact must operate during emergencies, not only when arrivals are low. With elections due in Italy, Spain and France in 2027, analysts warn that future governments may show less willingness to share responsibility when the next surge affects countries such as Greece or Bulgaria. For Colombi, the central risk is that governments learn they can invoke Schengen rules for political purposes without meaningful consequences.
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