Luis Ayllón
The Spanish Government yesterday urged the UK Government to conclude the agreement with the European Commission on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit “soon”. It did so through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who called on the British government to “have the courage” to take this step.
During his speech at the New Economy Forum, Albares said that he had briefly discussed these negotiations between Brussels and London – which Spain is following on the front line – with his British colleague, David Cameron, during the Davos Forum in Switzerland.
He acknowledged that the matter was also to be discussed yesterday at a meeting in Madrid between the new State Secretary for EU, Fernando Sampedro, and the State Secretary for Europe of the United Kingdom, Leo Docherty, a meeting that was arranged at the request of the British side, just a week before a new round of negotiations between the EU and the UK to conclude the agreement take place in Brussels.
In any case, Albares insisted that the British government has had a text on the table for many months which has the approval of Spain, and which he said is “generous, balanced and good for Gibraltar and for the Campo de Gibraltar, and which would allow the creation of an area of shared prosperity”. However, he repeated that, in this type of negotiation, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.
And in any case, he warned that time was short and that the agreement would have to be concluded “soon”, because in June there are elections to the European Parliament, which would paralyse the negotiations, as well as the fact that the United Kingdom could also have elections this year.
For this reason, he said: “I encourage the United Kingdom to take this step with courage and to accept the agreement now”, which he said includes “the free movement of people, the free movement of goods”, the disappearance of the fence and also “shared use of the airport, because it is beneficial for the Campo de Gibraltar”.
Albares did not refer to another of the stumbling blocks to reaching an agreement, which is the UK’s non-acceptance of Spain’s demands, such as the requirement that there be uniformed Spanish Security Forces agents at the border controls at the port and airport, together with Frontex agents. Nor does it address the issue of Spain’s knowledge of the personnel of the UK military base on the Rock.
It is the European Commission who, on behalf of the EU-27, has been negotiating with London the agreement that will govern the relationship between the Rock and the EU after Brexit, on the basis of the memorandum sealed by London and Madrid on New Year’s Eve 2020. This agreement provides for the removal of the border fence and for Frontex troops to be deployed to carry out controls at the port and airport of the Rock, among other issues. However, in any case, the agreement reached must be approved by Spain.
