Shengen Adieu – Ten countries reintroduce border controls. After Arras and Brussels, fear of new attacks is alive and well on the Continent. Europe is always too late to wake up

The return of the terrorist threat to the European Union, exacerbated by the crisis in the Middle East, has prompted ten European countries to notify the EU Commission of the temporary reintroduction of border controls, suspending the Schengen freedom of movement. In addition to Italy, which shares a border with Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Norway, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and France have reactivated controls at some of their borders.

"The Italian government has announced the reintroduction of internal land border controls with Slovenia, based on Article 28 of the Schengen Borders Code (EU Regulation 2016/339). The reintroduction of internal border controls, already adopted in the Schengen area, was communicated by Minister Piantedosi to the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, Thérèse Blanchet, and the interior ministers of the EU Member States and Schengen associated countries." So reads a note from Palazzo Chigi.

"The intensification of crisis outbreaks on Europe's borders, particularly after the attack on Israel, has in fact increased the threat level of violent action also within the Union", Palazzo Chigi informs.

The measure will be implemented from Saturday 21st of October for a period of 10 days, which could be extended. The control methods will be implemented in such a way as to "ensure the proportionality of the measure, adapted to the threat and calibrated to cause the least possible impact on cross-border traffic and goods traffic"'. Further developments in the situation and the effectiveness of the measures will be constantly analysed, in the hope of a rapid return to full freedom of movement."

The picture, explains the note of the Presidency of the Council, is "further aggravated by the constant migratory pressure to which Italy is subject, by sea and by land (140,000 arrivals on Italian coasts, +85% compared to 2022). In the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia alone, since the beginning of the year, 16 thousand people have entered the national territory irregularly".

How the Schengen stop works

There are two procedures that can be adopted in cases like this, an ordinary one (Article 25 of the Schengen Code) and an extraordinary one (Article 28), the one that the government opted for, motivated by a letter from the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi.

Italy resorted to the emergency procedure, which aims to reintroduce controls immediately. In this case, the first suspension - the regulation in question - may not exceed 10 days (starting on 21 October), while any subsequent extensions may last up to 20 days each, up to a maximum total of two months. Once the maximum period has been reached, it is possible to activate the ordinary procedure and extend the Schengen suspension for a further four months, up to a total of six months.

Suspension of the Schengen Agreement is not an uncommon circumstance: over the years, the various EU countries have resorted to it 387 times for the most varied reasons. Italy, for example, during the G8 in L'Aquila (2009), the G7 in Taormina (2017) and the G20 in Rome (2021).