Italy Plays Down Schengen Retaliation Against Spain At EU Crisis Meeting

Spain should not take Italy's move to tighten up checks on their border personally, the Italian interior minister said on Tuesday.

"This is in no way a measure directed against Spain or any other partner," Matteo Piantedosi told fellow EU ministers at an online meeting called to address the short-lived Ceuta migration crisis, according to remarks shared with journalists.

Piantedosi sought to take the heat out of the debate that has raged since last week, when Rome spearheaded criticism of Spain for its handling of the influx of some 60,000 Moroccans.

The Italian minister said the measure was legal, argued that other countries have frequently imposed their own temporary internal border checks, and painted Italy as a historical victim of the EU's lopsided burden-sharing when it comes to migration, especially during the Lampedusa crisis of 2023.

He did not reiterate the criticism Italy has levelled at Spain in recent days, instead using his speech to promote his country's strategy of outsourcing asylum claims to non-EU countries, including Albania.

At a press conference after the meeting, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain's interior minister, said he hoped Italy would go back on its temporary border controls. He added that 70,000 of the 72,000 people who entered Ceuta have now returned to Morocco.

No minister called for Spain's suspension from the Schengen area at the meeting, two diplomats said.

The countries that were most critical of Madrid last week "have reconsidered," Grande-Marlaska said, describing the tone of the meeting as constructive. There was never the slightest risk of the integrity of the Schengen zone being compromised, he added.

Denmark, which also hammered Spain over the Ceuta crisis, also gave a positive signal. Morten Bødskov, the integration minister, said he was "very satisfied that Spain acted quickly", in a statement after the meeting.

Most EU governments remain resolute in their opposition to Pedro Sánchez's controversial plan to regularise some 500,000 immigrants who are living in Spain without the required paperwork, arguing this encouraged migrants to cross into Ceuta.

Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for migration, told journalists after the meeting that he understood Italy's reaction, noting that citizens were concerned about the influx of migrants from Morocco.

"By every measure, Europe has not had this much control over illegal migration in decades," he said.