Sánchez to address Gibraltar in first bilateral meeting with Starmer in London

Eduardo González The President of the Government Pedro Sánchez will resume his international agenda this Wednesday with a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his official residence at 10 Downing Street in London. This is the first bilateral meeting between the two in the British capital, and the main topic of the talks will be the recent agreement on Gibraltar. The Prime Minister has traveled to the United Kingdom four times, but all of these have taken place for multilateral summits and have never included bilateral meetings with the four Conservative British Prime Ministers who have governed the United Kingdom since Sánchez became Prime Minister in June 2018: Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Elizabeth Truss, and Rishi Sunak. According to sources at the Moncloa (Spanish Government), one of the main topics the two leaders will discuss will be the agreement reached on June 11 by the European Commission and the United Kingdom, in the presence of Spain, to redefine Gibraltar's relationship with the European Union after Brexit. That same day, Pedro Sánchez and Keir Starmer held a telephone conversation to discuss the "historic agreement to guarantee the future of Gibraltar." Sánchez "congratulated" Starmer on his leadership, adding that his government "had succeeded where others had failed." The two leaders first discussed negotiations for the Gibraltar agreement during their first bilateral meeting, held in July 2024, just two weeks after the Labour leader took office and on the sidelines of the fourth European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. The agreement, which is expected to be embodied in a treaty that is still being negotiated and which safeguards the respective legal positions of Spain and the United Kingdom regarding sovereignty and jurisdiction, according to the joint declaration adopted by the three parties, guarantees the free movement of people by eliminating borders and controls between Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar and establishes that the Spanish national police will be responsible, on behalf of the European Union, for carrying out full Schengen controls at the Gibraltar port and airport. In the area of goods, the parties agreed on the principles underpinning the future customs union between the EU and Gibraltar, maintaining close collaboration between the respective customs authorities and eliminating controls on goods. They also reached an agreement on the principles of indirect taxation to be applied in Gibraltar, including tobacco, which will avoid distortions and contribute to the prosperity of the entire region. Other important aspects of the future EU-UK Agreement include commitments to a level playing field in the areas of state aid, taxation, labor, the environment, trade, and development. Sustainable development, the fight against money laundering, and transport, including the airport, cross-border workers' rights, and social security coordination. Specific cooperation on the environment will also be included, and the creation of an appropriate financial mechanism to promote cohesion and support training and employment in the region has been agreed upon. The European Commission (with direct participation from Spain) and the UK government have been negotiating the agreement for Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU after Brexit for five years, based on the so-called New Year's Eve Agreement reached by the Spanish and British governments on December 31, 2020. Last June's meeting was the fourth tripartite meeting at the political level.

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