The Diplomat
The Gibraltarian Government has intensified in recent hours its contacts with senior UK officials in charge of the negotiations between London and the EU on the future of the Rock after Brexit.
According to the Gibraltar Information Service, in the last 48 hours, the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo; the Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia; the Attorney General, Michael Llamas; and the Financial Secretary, Albert Mena, have met on the Rock with Lindsay Appleby, British Ambassador to the EU, with Robbie Bulloch, Director of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for the European Union-Gibraltar negotiations; and with Hugh Elliot, British Ambassador to Spain.
“The meetings are framed – indicates a statement distributed yesterday – in the extensive preparations being carried out for the negotiation of a treaty between the United Kingdom and the European Union in relation to Gibraltar that meets the provisions of the New Year’s Eve Agreement signed between Spain, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar”.
Gibraltar reports that there will be further preparatory meetings and its chief minister notes that he has previously worked very positively and closely with Lindsay Appleby and looks forward to doing so now that he is the British ambassador to the EU.
Noting that the Gibraltar and London teams have been working since January with a view to the forthcoming negotiation, he stresses that his government continues to maintain that “the New Year’s Eve Agreement provides a framework for a UK-EU Treaty in relation to Gibraltar that will deliver positive economic outcomes and shared economic prosperity for Gibraltar and the region”.
Precisely last Monday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, took advantage of the presence in Madrid of his Slovenian colleague, Anze Logar, to ask him that Slovenia, which holds the six-month Presidency of the EU, work for the negotiating mandate of the agreement between London and Brussels on the British colony to be adopted as soon as possible, because it is – he said – “a priority issue for Spain”.
Spain welcomed the proposal for a negotiating mandate that the European Commission presented to London on July 20, while from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar very critical voices were raised.
The United Kingdom considered that the document “undermines British sovereignty over the Rock” and “conflicts with the framework agreement reached with Spain” on New Year’s Eve.
Gibraltar also expressed its opposition at the time because it considers that the mandate would leave the control of its port and airport borders in the hands of Spain, and not of European Frontex agents, as was implied in the principle agreement reached on December 31.
One of the key points of the negotiation of that principle of agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom, with Gibraltar, reached hours before the entry into force of Brexit, was that the fence separating the colony and Spain would be demolished and that controls would only be established at its port and airport, as if the Rock were a Schengen area.
It was determined that Spain, which is part of Schengen, would be the “ultimately responsible and the guarantor” of the application of Schengen in Gibraltar, since the United Kingdom is not part of this area of free transit, and that during a transition period of four years to create a framework of trust, agents of the European agency Frontex would assist in these controls.
Albares, who traveled to London last July 22, to meet with his British counterpart, Dominic Saab, said that Spain will request the assistance of Frontex agents to exercise control of the external border with Gibraltar, a statement that has been strongly criticized by the Popular Party, which denounces that our country would be the only one to stop controlling its borders.
After the presentation of the mandate proposal by the European Commission, it must be the European Council who gives the go-ahead, so that Brussels can begin negotiations with London. Throughout the negotiation, the Commission will remain in contact with the authorities and will take their opinions into account.
The Spanish Government has already stated that it will be, at all times, accompanying the European Commission, ensuring that its legal positions, interests and objectives are safeguarded and that the commitments reached between Spain and the United Kingdom are respected.
Precisely, Spain has just sent to London as ambassador to José Pascual Marco, who has been the person who has led more directly, in recent years, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs everything related to the Brexit and the situation in which Gibraltar could be.
