The Government threatened Italy this Friday with “proportional measures” if it maintains the border controls with Spain that it reintroduced on August 1 due to the massive and irregular entry of immigrants into Ceuta on July 30, according to a statement from the Executive, which describes that measure as “unprecedented in recent history” and “unfair.”
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In the statement, Pedro Sánchez’s Executive warns that the reintroduction of controls affects “the mobility of thousands of passengers” and generates “legal uncertainty” during the summer period, highlighting that it was adopted “without prior notice, unilaterally, and with spurious arguments that do not comply with either the Schengen Borders Code or the truth.”
In this regard, the Government warns that none of the migrants who irregularly entered Ceuta last week could or can freely enter the Schengen area because the autonomous city of Ceuta has a special regime within it and that virtually all of them have already returned to Morocco.
Furthermore, the Government indicates that Italy is, according to Frontex, the Member State that has registered the most irregular crossings in recent years, with figures that have even doubled those of Spain, and that since 2022, Italy has not complied with the Dublin Regulation, generating an additional burden of migratory pressure on the rest of the Member States. However, it adds, “Spain has never introduced controls for Italy.” In fact, the statement recalls, “it has always shown solidarity with it,” hosting some of the migrants who arrived in Lampedusa in 2023 and repeatedly opening its ports to migrants rescued on the central Mediterranean route.
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For all these reasons, Pedro Sánchez’s Government, which today held a coordination meeting by videoconference with four of its ministers and the number two of Foreign Affairs to analyze the situation in Ceuta, concludes that the measure adopted by the Italian Government “is unfair, contrary to the interests of the EU, and discriminatory against the Spanish population” and urges Giorgia Meloni’s Executive to rectify. That is, to end the controls and treat Spaniards “like the rest of European citizens.” “If this is not done before the end of Sunday, August 9, Spain will be forced to adopt proportional measures to protect the interests and dignity of its citizens,” warns the Spanish Government.
“We trust that Europeanism, common sense, and good faith will prevail,” wishes Sánchez’s Executive, which closes the statement with a reflection for the Italian administration: “Governments are there to promote understanding between countries and the general interest of their populations, not to create fractures and sterile conflicts driven by internal electoral motivations.”
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