Italy Suspends Free Movement Agreement with Spain
The Italian government has suspended free movement arrangements with Spain under the Schengen Agreement. The decision follows the mass crossing of migrants into Ceuta.
The Italian government has suspended its free movement arrangements with Spain under the Schengen Agreement. The Italian Ministry of the Interior stated that the decision was made in response to the mass crossing of migrants into Ceuta.
Italy and Spain are both members of the Schengen Agreement, allowing citizens to travel between the countries by ship or plane without border checks, as the two nations share no land border. According to a report by Sky News, the Italian Ministry of the Interior also announced that it had reached an agreement with Paris to strengthen checks along the land border between France and Italy.
The move came after Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, stated yesterday that the images from Ceuta were "shocking" and criticized "uncontrolled illegal migration." She had previously suggested that Italy might restore border checks with Spain—a step that has now been implemented.
The Schengen Agreement, signed in 1985, generally allows people to move between member countries without border checks. The agreement includes all European Union countries except Cyprus and the Republic of Ireland, as well as Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, and Switzerland.
The implementation of the agreement has been under pressure in recent years against the backdrop of rising migration numbers in the early 2020s, although these figures have now begun to fall. Several countries, including Germany and France, have partially restored border checks at certain crossings, a move that can be registered as an official exception in accordance with Schengen rules.
