The Diplomat
The vice-president of the European Commission (EC) in charge of relations with the United Kingdom, Maros Sefcovic, trusts that the reactivation of negotiations between Europeans and Britons to define the EU’s relations with Gibraltar will provide the “final push” needed to close an agreement. However, he warned that it will be “more difficult”.
“We have achieved great advances in many areas and we have to achieve what is described as the final impulse, (although) in many negotiations of this type the last step is always the most difficult”, says Sefcovic on a press street in Brussels, informs Europa Press.
The EC negotiators, who come to represent the United Kingdom, will be held next week, the 13th and 14th, in London to celebrate what will be the fifteenth round of talks on Gibraltar, the first since in mayo they dropped contacts by the electoral calendar in Spain and Gibraltar.
Asked for the round, Sefcovic says that he is in “close contact” with the United Kingdom and “cooperating in all aspects of this negotiation with Spain”, at a time that indicates that at the moment “great advances in many areas” have been achieved.
“There is enormous interest on the part of the Commission in being as useful as possible. It would be good news for everyone (which is very helpful) and the Commission will do everything possible to culminate this process”, concluded the Slovak socialist.
The negotiation of the agreement took place between London and Brussels, but it was based on what was agreed upon by the Spanish and British Government in the Nochevieja of 2020, if both parties agreed after a negotiating mandate that marked the limits of the European Union for it new framework for relations with Gibraltar.
The reactivation of the conversations between Europeans and the British on this subject is known after the Spanish and British Government resumed the last few months in Malaga the contacts to resolve the bilateral agreements that affect Gibraltar.
Last November 28, Albares and Cameron coincided at a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, where they held a bilateral meeting where they agreed to resume conversations about the relationship with Gibraltar after Brexit.
As Albares explained before the meeting, Spain and the United Kingdom are “very close” to closing the deal due to the lack of “some arrows”.
