<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his British counterpart, David Lammy, discussed yesterday in London the agreement on the future fit of Gibraltar in the European Union, whose negotiations at ministerial level will resume this coming Thursday in Brussels, according to official sources from the Ministry.</strong></h4> During the meeting, according to the sources, both ministers “have discussed the agreement regarding Gibraltar” and have dealt with “bilateral issues that affect the citizens of both countries, as well as the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East.” “We have agreed to strengthen and structure our bilateral relations, also as allies in NATO. We have discussed the agreement regarding Gibraltar, support for Ukraine and peace efforts in Gaza,” Albares said through the social network X. “We also looked ahead to meeting in Brussels later this week to seek to progress a deal on Gibraltar alongside Fabian Picardo and Maros Sefcovic”, Lammy said on the same social network. In statements to the press before the start of the meeting, the minister assured, accompanied by Lammy, that the objective is to create “this shared prosperity for the Campo de Gibraltar” so that “the 300,000 Andalusians” who live in the area “are connected to the entire region on a daily basis.” According to the announcement made yesterday by the executive vice president of the European Commission in charge of the issue, Maros Sefcovic, the conversations between Spain and the European Commission with the United Kingdom on Gibraltar will be resumed at ministerial level next Thursday morning in Brussels. The European Commission (with direct participation from Spain) and the Government of the United Kingdom have been negotiating for more than two years the agreement for the future relationship of Gibraltar with the EU after Brexit, based on the so-called New Year's Eve Agreement reached by the Spanish and British governments on December 31, 2020. Spain and the EU have presented a proposal for a "balanced" agreement and have assured that the next steps depend on London. Although all parties agree that the final objective of the agreement must be the creation of an area of shared prosperity between the Rock and Campo de Gibraltar, which includes the removal of the Fence, the British and Gibraltarians have warned that they are not willing to accept that Spain assumes access controls to the Schengen area, which should be moved to the port and airport of Gibraltar. Initially, the presence of agents from Frontex, the European border agency, is planned at these points. <h5><strong>Previous meetings</strong></h5> The meeting this coming Thursday in Brussels will be held in the same tripartite format as the two previous ones, which took place in the community capital on April 12 and May 16 and in which Albares, Lammy's predecessor, the conservative David Cameron, and Sefcovic himself participated, in addition to the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo. "There are still technical issues to be resolved, but I remain optimistic about the possibility of reaching a safe agreement that is beneficial for all and that brings renewed and improved prosperity to the entire region," declared the Gibraltarian leader yesterday, quoted by the Government of the Rock in a press release. The April meeting concluded with a joint declaration in which the three parties limited themselves to announcing that the negotiations had been "held in a constructive atmosphere" and "significant progress" had been achieved. In the second meeting, held in May, “significant progress” was made based on “the political lines already agreed on April 12, which referred to mobility, goods and the airport,” said Albares, who also warned that, although the prospect was that there would be “an agreement,” there was still “no possible deadline.” In fact, the process came to a standstill after the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the conservative Rishi Sunak, announced on May 22 the end of the legislature and the advancement of the elections to July 4. A few days before the British elections, David Lammy assured -still as Foreign Affairs spokesman for the Labour Party- that if he assumed the position of Foreign Minister he would address the agreement on the future of Gibraltar from the point where David Cameron had left it. <div class="lRu31" dir="ltr"> <span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">Yesterday was the first working meeting between Albares and Lammy, although both had already met last July in Washington, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit, shortly after the victory of the Labour Party in the legislative elections and only 48 hours after the British minister took office.</span></span> <span class="jCAhz"><span class="ryNqvb">At that meeting, both ministers discussed the negotiations and agreed on the need to “move forward quickly for the benefit and interest of all.”</span></span></span> <div class="OvtS8d"></div> <div id="ow188"></div> </div> <div class="UdTY9 WdefRb" aria-hidden="true" data-location="2"></div>
