Spain summons Rome envoy over Italy Schengen call

Spain criticised Italy over calls to exclude it from the Schengen area and summoned its envoy in Rome, escalating a dispute that began after hundreds of migrants entered Spain's Ceuta exclave from Morocco.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had called Thursday for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen zone. “I am in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain,” Tajani wrote on X. “Irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a danger to national security.”

Tajani also criticised what he described as Madrid’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to more than 500,000 irregular immigrants. He said the move was wrong and encouraged human trafficking.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League party, also called for the Schengen zone to be suspended and for Europe’s borders to be defended.

The Schengen Area is a system of open borders covering 29 European countries that have abolished frontier controls at their common borders.