The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insisted yesterday that he sees a “constructive spirit” in the United Kingdom to reach an agreement that will lead to “an area of shared prosperity between Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar”.
Albares, who was on a visit to Córdoba, responded to questions from journalists about the progress of negotiations between London and Brussels on the situation in which Gibraltar is left after Brexit, adding that “the ball is in the UK’s court”.
The minister said that “for an agreement it takes two” and affirmed that once “we put a global agreement on the table” the outcome requires “not only a Spanish proposal”, but “acceptance by the United Kingdom”.
“We hope it will be as soon as possible”, Albares reiterated, adding: “We are ready for the agreement”.
The British government said in March that it was continuing to work “intensively” to achieve this agreement, as a spokesperson for the British ministry told Europa Press when asked whether the recent agreement between London and Brussels on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the so-called ‘Windsor framework’, will enable the negotiations on the Rock, which have already gone through twelve rounds, to be unblocked.
London argues that the basis for the agreement should be the political framework agreed between the UK and Spain on 31 December 2020, which provides for the abolition of the border fence but raises the problem of border controls at Gibraltar’s port and airport.
