- Italy has checked arrivals from Spain since 1 August; Spain has done the same since 8 August.
- Schengen is not suspended: the Borders Code allows temporary checks in the face of a serious threat to public order.
- The checks are spot checks aimed mainly at third-country nationals; travel with a passport and a residence permit.
The entry of tens of thousands of people from Morocco into Ceuta on 30 July, with at least 72 dead according to the Government, has had an unexpected consequence inside Europe. On 1 August Italy reintroduced checks at its air and sea borders with Spain, which the European Commission records for the period from 1 August to 1 September. Spain answered with Order INT/846/2026 of 7 August, published in the gazette on Sunday 9: checks on passengers on flights and sea links from Italy for 30 days, from 00:00 on 8 August to 24:00 on 7 September.
This is not a suspension of Schengen. Italy and Spain remain part of the free-movement area, but the Schengen Borders Code lets a state exceptionally and temporarily reinstate checks at internal borders when there is a serious threat to its public order or internal security. For a company with frequent travellers between the two countries, the effect is practical: time and paperwork, not a change of regime.
How the checks work
Order INT/846/2026 relies on article 25 of the Schengen Borders Code and applies to passenger flights whose last airport of departure is in Italy and to passenger sea links. According to the press, Spanish police aim the checks mainly at third-country nationals, with spot checks on between 5 % and 15 % of passengers on selected flights, starting with Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat. About 86,000 passengers a day are estimated to use the roughly 500 direct air connections between the two countries.
EU citizens need only their valid identity card or passport, as before. Third-country nationals living in either country should carry their passport and the document proving their legal residence. The order also provides that the measure may end early if the circumstances justifying it disappear or can be met with less restrictive measures.
A contest with limits
These checks are an exceptional tool that must respect necessity and proportionality. Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said Rome will decide whether to lift them after 15 August, once the security risk is clearer. Madrid has called the Italian measure unfair and discriminatory and has warned of countermeasures and has answered with the 7 August order.
The episode shows how a crisis on an external border can carry friction into the interior of the common area. Italy and Denmark went as far as to ask for Spain to be suspended from Schengen, which Madrid rejected as unworkable under Union rules. Meanwhile, the Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, praised Spain’s handling of the crisis in a letter to the prime minister on 3 August.
What to do
For companies with frequent travel, it is advisable to remind employees to carry a passport or identity card and, if they are not EU citizens, a valid residence permit, and to allow extra time on journeys between the two countries, especially at the Madrid and Barcelona airports. The checks are spot checks, but their application can vary from one flight to another.
If you are organising meetings or events between the two countries on dates close to the end of the measures, which on the Spanish side is 7 September, review the change and cancellation conditions of tickets and bookings. Do not assume the current scenario is final: it may be shortened or renewed, and your adviser or travel agency can guide you case by case.
A spot check does not change the right to travel, but it does change how long it takes to exercise it.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
