Margallo and Albares radically disagree on the agreement’s effects on Gibraltar’s sovereignty

Eduardo González The agreement reached this Wednesday in Brussels by the European Union and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar's future position in the EU has sparked an indirect but forceful debate between the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares (PSOE), and one of his predecessors, José Manuel García-Margallo (PP), who, during his term (2011-2016), was one of the most belligerent foreign ministers on matters related to the Rock. "This is the first major global agreement in more than 300 years," said José Manuel Albares this Thursday in an interview with Spanish National Radio (RNE), the day after participating in the signing of the agreement alongside the Vice President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, and the British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, in the presence of Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Fabián Picardo. According to the minister, this is a "historic" agreement that opens up "a new range of possibilities" for the relationship between Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as between the United Kingdom and the European Union, and represents "a great step forward for coexistence," he continued. "The objectives that Spain set have been achieved," Albares stated. One of these objectives, he specified, is to guarantee the greatest stability and security for the people living in the area, for "the 15,000 workers who transit through it every day," and for "the 300,000 Andalusians in Campo de Gibraltar." In addition, he continued, Spain, as the closest country in the Schengen area, will be responsible for carrying out passport controls at the port and airport of Gibraltar, which also implies the end of the Fence, "the last wall in continental Europe," according to Albares. In any case, he asserted, this agreement makes it "absolutely clear" that Spain is not renouncing "at any time" its claim to sovereignty. Specifically, according to the joint declaration signed by the three parties, the agreement "safeguards the respective legal positions of Spain and the United Kingdom regarding sovereignty and jurisdiction." For her part, her predecessor in office, Arancha González Laya, also of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), expressed her satisfaction (on the Noticias 24 horas program) with "the hundreds of citizens who have their rights to normal transit restored through one of the last bastions of abnormality within the EU." García-Margallo In a very different vein, José Manuel García-Margallo told RNE that he saw "no advantage in an independent country like ours accepting the continued existence of a colony, the only one that exists on European territory." Likewise, during an interview on COPE's TRECE Al Día program, the former Foreign Minister during Mariano Rajoy's first term in office asserted that this is indeed an "absolutely historic" agreement, but "for the worst possible reasons," and because it represents "Spain's renunciation of regaining sovereignty over the Rock" and "its demand that the Campo de Gibraltar have its own independent development." For the former minister, the agreement irreversibly legitimizes Gibraltar's tax model, which generates unfair competition with the rest of the region and establishes a model that prevents any incentive to change the current situation. "There will never be a Gibraltarian who wants to leave these conditions," he asserted. "Who is going to establish a business in the Campo de Gibraltar if they can do so on the Rock without paying taxes?" he added. García-Margallo lamented that Spain has missed the opportunity that opened up with the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU, which also left Gibraltar outside the EU. According to the former minister, international law and all UN resolutions classify Gibraltar as "the last colony in Europe" and establish that its status must be resolved through bilateral negotiations between Spain and the United Kingdom, with no possibility of self-determination. In this context, he added, the agreement reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom implies that any future modification would require the support of the European Commission and all Member States, making any attempt at revision extremely difficult. "It means accepting definitive defeat," he stated. "We had the right of veto; no agreement with Gibraltar could be signed without Spain's prior consent, and that has not been used," he denounced. García-Margallo also recalled the co-sovereignty proposal his government presented after Brexit, which, he asserted, would have made possible the creation of a special economic zone that would benefit the Rock as well as the Campo de Gibraltar, Ceuta, and Melilla. "We would have managed to get the Campo de Gibraltar out of the underdevelopment to which it will be condemned as long as this situation continues."

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