Italy and Spain Extend Tit-for-Tat Border Checks, and the Riviera Crossings Count the Days

Italy said on Tuesday it had extended for another 15 days its border checks for travellers from Spain, drawing a tit-for-tat response from Madrid in an ongoing dispute between the two EU members, according to The Local Italy. The measures concern the frontier traffic that runs between the two countries, a route that matters to the western Mediterranean and to the ports and road corridors that feed it.

The checks were introduced in the wake of a migrant surge, the outlet reported, and the two governments have now matched each other's extensions rather than stepping back. For a border that sits inside the Schengen area, the practical effect is a second layer of control on a route that shipping and haulage operators had treated as frictionless.

The Local Italy frames the exchange as a spat between two EU states, not a wider suspension of free movement. No figures for the volume of traffic affected, or for the cost of the delays, were given in the report.