Brussels to publish the legal text of the Gibraltar agreement on its website this week

Eduardo González The European Commission's website will publish the legal text of the agreement between the European Union and the UK government on Gibraltar's future role in the EU after Brexit this week, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced on Monday, February 23, in Brussels. "This week, according to information provided by the Commission, the legal text of the agreement regarding Gibraltar will be published on the Commission's website," Albares told reporters upon arriving at the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meeting. "All the points of this agreement are known," he continued. "Two days after June 11, the day the political agreement was reached, I met with representatives from the Campo de Gibraltar region, including all its mayors, the Andalusian Regional Government, the Provincial Council, and socioeconomic stakeholders," he recalled. “I immediately requested to address the full Congress, which I did in October, and there was a special plenary session where I detailed all the points of that agreement,” he added. “Transparency, ongoing communication, and providing information to the political and socioeconomic representatives of the 300,000 Andalusians in the Campo de Gibraltar region, and especially to the 15,000 workers who commute daily between Campo de Gibraltar and Gibraltar, have been guiding principles,” he affirmed. “This week, the legal text will be posted on the Commission's website and will be available for anyone to download,” he concluded. On February 17, the Commission announced its proposals for the signing, provisional application, and conclusion of the agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar. Once this step is completed, Brussels will have to forward these proposals to the Council, which will proceed with the necessary steps for the signing and conclusion of the agreement. Finally, the European Parliament must give its consent for ratification, in accordance with the EU treaties. For his part, the British Secretary of State for European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, announced on February 19 that the agreement would be published “very soon,” but did not specify dates or deadlines for its ratification in the British Parliament. The Government of Gibraltar has already approved the Treaty for ratification, provided that no changes are introduced to the meaning of the approved text during the legal review. Once the final text is available, it will be submitted to the Parliament of Gibraltar by means of a motion subject to amendments for debate. Approval by the Parliament of Gibraltar will signal the United Kingdom to proceed with its own Treaty ratification procedures. The EU-UK agreement on Gibraltar will complete the legal framework for EU-UK relations established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Gibraltar is not included in the scope of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2020 and in force since 2021. In mid-December, negotiators from the European Union and the United Kingdom successfully completed the drafting of the legal text of the treaty on Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU after Brexit. The two negotiating teams had been discussing the final text for months after the European Union (represented by the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares) and the United Kingdom (represented by the UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo) reached a “definitive” political agreement on “the fundamental aspects of the future Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom concerning Gibraltar” on June 11, 2025, in Brussels.

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