The Diplomat
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares received his British counterpart, David Lammy, in Madrid on Monday. Both agreed on their desire to reach “an agreement regarding Gibraltar.”
“Our close relations benefit our citizens,” Albares declared on social media. “Together we defend democratic values, European security, and peace in the face of Russian aggression,” he continued. “We both want an agreement on Gibraltar,” he concluded.
Lammy traveled to Madrid to participate in the Weimar Plus meeting of foreign ministers (UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, and the EU), “following the British Government’s commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defense from April 2027, as set out in the so-called Spring Statement, and the additional €2.64 billion to be allocated to defense in the next fiscal year,” according to the British Embassy in Madrid.
In September of last year, Albares, Lammy, and the then Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, held a meeting in Brussels on Gibraltar, which concluded, according to the joint statement, with “further progress on complex negotiating issues, particularly on issues relating to people and goods,” based on “the political lines” agreed at the April meeting of that same year, which “referred to mobility, goods, and the airport.” Those meetings concluded, as usual, without a specific deadline for reaching an agreement.
Lammy and Albares last met last October, when the British minister was invited to a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) held in Luxembourg. On that occasion, the Spanish minister warned that the Spanish government “would not understand the United Kingdom’s rapprochement with the EU” without London’s acceptance of the agreement proposed by Spain and Brussels on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit. This agreement, in his own words, is “balanced, generous, respectful of the European Union’s acquis, as it cannot be otherwise, and guarantees the freedom of movement of people and goods.”
