Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday expressed Spain’s “solidarity” with the Republic of Ireland for the stalled negotiations between the United Kingdom and the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol, negotiations that, he assured, are “separate” from those of Gibraltar and “have no more in common” than the participation of the British Government.
“Spain wants the United Kingdom to join the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol as soon as possible,” Albares said during a joint press conference with his Irish counterpart, Simon Coveney, at the end of a bilateral meeting at the Palacio de Viana in Madrid.
“Due to the dense social and economic ties that Spain has with the United Kingdom, as it is probably, after Ireland, the EU country most affected by the Brexit, I have conveyed my solidarity to Minister Coveney and Ireland, who are facing a complex issue and major negotiations that affect Ireland very directly,” he added.
“I encourage the UK to engage in this dialogue,” he continued. “Of course, we would not understand taking any kind of unilateral action,” he warned. “The agreements between the EU and the UK, like any international agreement, must be respected and, therefore, I do not want to shuffle or hypothesize any alternative than respecting international agreements, including the Withdrawal Agreement,” he said. “Of course, Spain is prepared for any eventuality,” he said.
Negotiations between the EU and the UK on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement have suffered a major setback after the British government of Boris Johnson threatened to unilaterally break the Northern Ireland Protocol. Should this threat go ahead, the European Commission could respond by suspending trade agreements with the UK and even paralyzing the Gibraltar Treaty negotiations.
In this regard, Albares said yesterday that the negotiations on Gibraltar and Northern Ireland “are two separate negotiations and do not have in common, beyond the fact that on the other side of the table is the same actor, and we expect from that actor a constructive will, the same with which we always sit at the table”. He also assured that the negotiations on the future relationship of the EU with Gibraltar “are progressing at a good pace”. “There have already been six rounds of negotiations, the last one this week in London, concrete texts have been put on the table to draft the agreement and we hope that the drafting will begin soon, with concrete solutions and legal solutions on the various important points,” he added.
Coveney thanked Spain for its “solidarity” with Ireland vis-à-vis the United Kingdom
For his part, Simon Coveney expressed his gratitude to “a country as great and influential as Spain” for “the solidarity it has shown us during the Brexit process.” “This week, unfortunately, we have been able to see an increase in tensions in terms of the language used from London and with a potential threat of unilateral action through a law that could set aside part of the Withdrawal Agreement and international law related to Brexit,” he lamented.
“The Northern Ireland Protocol was designed and agreed by the British government and the European Commission” to “preserve the peace process” after Brexit and therefore “it would be indecent to change course,” he warned. “The message from Ireland is: let’s get back to the table, let the negotiators talk and through collaboration and compromise on both sides, let’s try to find common ground, middle ground that will allow us to respond to the concerns of many people in Northern Ireland about how the Protocol is being implemented,” he continued.
“What we don’t need is for the British Government to unilaterally decide to pass a law that would deliberately breach international law and set aside some elements enshrined in an international treaty, which is what the British Government is now proposing,” he warned. “The last thing the EU needs right now is to have tensions with the UK and the last thing Ireland needs is to have tensions with the UK,” he said.
As for the relationship between the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Gibraltar issue, “they are completely separate issues, they are subject to completely separate negotiations, and I think that is the best thing we can do, to keep them completely separate; it has been the case so far and I hope it will remain that way in the future,” Coveney warned.
