Italy, Spain agree to remove border checks

Italy and Spain have reached an agreement to eliminate the border checks that were introduced following a dispute over migration, according to diplomatic and government sources. The decision follows a series of talks between the two countries' leaders, who met off the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. Italy's interior ministry had implemented controls on travelers from Spain after a large influx of migrants traveled from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

The measures, which had been in place for weeks, will now end simultaneously with Madrid's counterpart, as per Italian government sources. Despite not sharing a land border, passengers flying between the two nations had been subject to passport checks, a practice normally uncommon within the Schengen free-travel zone that both countries belong to.