Spain and Brussels intend to close the agreement on Gibraltar this year

For the first time since almost two years ago Madrid and London signed the New Year's Eve agreement on the situation in Gibraltar after Brexit, both the Spanish Government and the European Commission declare themselves optimistic about the possibility of quickly translating this consensus into an international treaty that make effective commitments such as the removal of the fence, the incorporation of the Rock into the Schengen area and the establishment of controls at the airport and the port.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 November 2022 Friday 01:32
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Spain and Brussels intend to close the agreement on Gibraltar this year

For the first time since almost two years ago Madrid and London signed the New Year's Eve agreement on the situation in Gibraltar after Brexit, both the Spanish Government and the European Commission declare themselves optimistic about the possibility of quickly translating this consensus into an international treaty that make effective commitments such as the removal of the fence, the incorporation of the Rock into the Schengen area and the establishment of controls at the airport and the port.

"The negotiations are going well, quite well even," Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said yesterday in an interview with several European media held in Brussels. "On the British side, we now see a genuine desire to reach an agreement, a desire that in the case of Spain has always been there," he explained before meeting with the Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, responsible for contacts with the United Kingdom. United.

Albares transferred to the European negotiator "a complete agreement proposal" on the issues that affect the bilateral relationship between Spain and the United Kingdom, and asked him to "intensify" contacts with London on the rest of the issues that will be included in the European agreement . The response was positive, the goal is to resolve the pending issues in the coming weeks. "We are prepared to accelerate the pace of negotiations with a view to finding solutions to the main problems before the end of the year," the European Commission announced after the meeting.

The agreement proposal presented by Albares is the indispensable minimum that the Spanish Government considers should include the European agreement with London on Gibraltar, which affects areas that are of Community competence, and Brussels negotiates directly. Madrid maintains, let us remember, veto power over the international treaty between the EU and the United Kingdom. The text presented yesterday affects the Gibraltar airport and is based on the multiple bilateral conversations of recent months.

Madrid, in particular, wants to agree on the terms under which the Spanish police will be able to act at the aerodrome and the port, the application of European law on international flights from the Rock and the location of the military base. Both parties have exchanged documents, and Spain sees the basis for creating "a zone of shared prosperity for Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar".

“We hope that they will tell us yes, but to dance a tango it takes two”. Now more than ever, the ball is in the British court, argues Spain. "We are at a time when I have asked the Commission to intensify contacts and to start writing," the minister told the Spanish press after meeting with Šefčovič.

The communication on the state of the bilateral negotiations had so far been very discreet and the Commission welcomed the Spanish news. The positive signals from Spain on Gibraltar come in parallel to the Dublin announcement of important progress in the negotiations with London on Northern Ireland. Now, they say in Brussels, all that remains is for Rishi Sunak, the new British prime minister, to speak.