Italy prolongs Schengen suspension with Spain, talks loom

Italy and Spain have agreed to remove tit-for-tat border checks that were introduced following a migration dispute. The standoff began in the summer after tens of thousands of migrants entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco, prompting Italy's interior ministry to introduce controls on travellers from Spain. While the countries do not share a land border, passengers on flights and ferries have faced random ID checks, which is atypical for members of the Schengen free-travel zone.

According to the New Straits Times and Free Malaysia Today, the agreement to end the checks was reached after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held talks on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. Under an agreement reached at the summit, Italian government sources stated that Rome’s measures will remain in place for another week so that they lapse at the same time as Madrid's.

Euro Weekly News reports that while the prime ministers agreed to work towards removing the checks, they have not been scrapped yet and no date has been given for their disappearance. Spain's current order runs until midnight on Thursday, October 22, while Italy has renewed its checks for another week to match. A Spanish government spokesperson noted that the interior ministers of both nations will work over the coming week on lifting the controls.

Brief written by urgent.news from France 24, New Straits Times, Free Malaysia Today, Euro Weekly News, The Local Spain — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.