Albares to meet with Picardo in Madrid on Wednesday to discuss EU-UK Agreement

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares will meet with Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo on Wednesday at the Ministry headquarters in the Palacio de Viana, Madrid, "to discuss preparations for the implementation of the EU-UK Agreement regarding Gibraltar," according to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spoke to The Diplomat. The meeting will take place at 4:00 PM this Wednesday. According to the Government of Gibraltar, Picardo will be accompanied by the Minister for Business, Gemma Arias-Vásquez, and the Attorney General, Michael Llamas. Following the meeting, the Chief Minister will address the media. The next day, Thursday, April 23, Fabian Picardo will speak at a New Economy Forum breakfast briefing in Madrid, eleven years after the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, prevented him from speaking at the same forum amidst heightened tensions between the Gibraltarian authorities and the Spanish government. That evening, the Chief Minister will be interviewed on "La Noche en 24 Horas," the current affairs program hosted by Xabier Fortes on TVE's 24-hour news channel. Fortes will also introduce Picardo at the New Economy Forum event. The last bilateral meeting between Picardo and a Spanish Foreign Minister took place in the Campo de Gibraltar region in July 2020, when he met with then-Minister Arancha González Laya. That meeting was harshly criticized by the People's Party (PP), Ciudadanos and Vox. The then-president of the PP, Pablo Casado, called it a "historic error" because it constituted an "unacceptable recognition" of Picardo "as a valid interlocutor" and implied a "renunciation of Spain's historical rights." Vox, for its part, described it as an "unprecedented break with Spain's diplomatic position regarding the sovereignty of the Rock of Gibraltar," and, similarly, the deputy spokesperson for Ciudadanos in Congress, Edmundo Bal, denounced the break with "Spain's long-standing historical tradition of denying Gibraltar any kind of recognition on the international stage." In June 2021, during his last public appearance in Madrid (organized by the Club Siglo XXI), Fabian Picardo praised the "dialogue-oriented" attitude of some of the Spanish foreign ministers before and after José Manuel García-Margallo. The meeting with González Laya, he declared, “provoked many negative and inappropriate comments from those who seem determined never to see us face to face.” “Then I find (Fernando) Morán, (Miguel Ángel) Moratinos, (Alfonso) Dastis, (Josep) Borrell, and González Laya even more courageous, since they have all met with Gibraltar's chief ministers, and I think it's fair to say that none of them, so far, has expressed regret,” Picardo asserted. José Manuel Albares has met with Picardo several times, but always in the context of the multi-party negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom for the conclusion of the Agreement on Gibraltar's future role within the EU after Brexit. The Gibraltar Agreement In fact, Albares' meeting with Picardo will take place just four months after the European Union and United Kingdom negotiators completed drafting the treaty, and less than a month after the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU Member States (COREPER) approved the text and the decisions regarding its signing and provisional application. The Gibraltar agreement, which completes the legal framework for relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom, provides for the removal of the border fence and the elimination of passport controls between the two territories. Spain will assume control of Schengen Area border controls at Gibraltar's airport and port, as well as the final decision on residence permits. On April 9, José Manuel Albares assured the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress that the Spanish government is "working" to ensure the agreement can begin to be implemented from July 15 onwards, "once both the Union and the United Kingdom complete their internal procedures for approving and signing the text." Despite the satisfaction expressed by all parties involved, Spain and the United Kingdom (including Gibraltar) have each offered their own interpretation of the agreement's implications for their respective sovereignty claims. In fact, both governments have affirmed that the treaty maintains their existing positions on this matter. The text stipulates that the removal of physical barriers to the movement of people and goods and cooperation between the parties will be implemented without prejudice to the sovereignty and jurisdiction of either country, and that the agreement does not alter Spain's legal position. Furthermore, the treaty includes a chapter on sovereignty, which states that any supplementary agreement, measure, or action arising from it will not affect the legal positions of the United Kingdom and Spain, nor will it serve as a basis for assertions or denials of sovereignty, including in legal proceedings.

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