<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares has warned that any “full” relationship between the UK and the EU must include an agreement on Gibraltar.</strong></h4> “The relationship between the UK and the EU is a comprehensive relationship, a global relationship, not just an à la carte relationship,” Albares said Monday during an interview with BBC Newsnight. “There are many, many things we need to talk about, including Gibraltar,” an issue that “is still unresolved” because “there is still no agreement,” he warned. “It is very clear that it is part of the withdrawal agreement,” and therefore, “we must resolve the Gibraltar issue to have a full relationship between the EU and the UK.” London will host the EU-UK Summit on May 19, where leaders of the European Union (including the President of the European Council, António Costa, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas) and the United Kingdom could announce an agreement on security and defense, trade and cooperation. For his part, Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabián Picardo, stated this Monday that the details regarding Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU have not yet been resolved and that both parties are working to resolve them as soon as possible. Last October, Albares warned in Luxembourg—on the occasion of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC), on the sidelines of which he met with his British counterpart, David Lammy—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 Gibraltar's future after Brexit. He added that this agreement "respects the European Union's acquis in the Schengen area and the Customs Union" and "guarantees the freedom of movement of people and goods." Around the same time, the Secretary of State for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, conveyed to the United Kingdom and Gibraltar the message that the Spanish government would not accept a form of customary agreement with the European Union on the future of the Rock after Brexit. "Spain, in general, defends that, in agreements with neighboring and friendly countries, as we also do with the United Kingdom, including in relation to Gibraltar, no exceptions should be made, and that no individual selection of the topics to be addressed in the agreement should be allowed," he stated. Spain wants the United Kingdom and Gibraltar to accept the potential agreement in its entirety, and not just the points that interest them, especially with regard to the inclusion of the colony in the Schengen Area of free movement of people and goods, which would entail the abolition of the Fence. Spain agreed to the abolition of the Fence in the 2020 New Year's Eve agreement, but it has not renounced the presence of Spanish police officers at entry and exit controls at ports and airports. This is something that the British and Gibraltarians dislike, seeing as a setback to their sovereignty.
