Walter Finch
A ‘FAIR and balanced’ post-Brexit deal for Gibraltar is practically complete ahead of the looming November deadline, the Spanish foreign minister has declared.
“Our hand is extended, the agreement has been on the table for a long time,” said Jose Manuel Albares in an interview with Spanish radio.
The negotiations between the European Union, Spain and the United Kingdom have been languishing since an apparent April breakthrough on the ‘general political lines’ of a deal.
The current ‘wave through’ fluid frontier that has been in effect since 2021 has only been a temporary solution to what should be a strict Schengen border for the 15,000 workers who cross it every day.
But the announcement that the EU’s new Entry Exit System (EES) would finally come into effect at all Schengen borders from November 10 set a tense deadline for negotiations to avoid a hard border.
“We have spoken by phone and there was a bilateral meeting at the NATO summit,” Albares told Cadena SER.
“The technical teams are working and I hope we can close it as soon as possible. It is a good agreement and a balanced agreement, which is needed for the Campo de Gibraltar.
“Spain and the Commission have a full desire to reach a fair and balanced agreement.”
However it has long been known that the issues still to be resolved are the most intractable, starting with control of the airport.
Located on the disputed territory of the isthmus between Gibraltar and the mainland, Spain claims it as sovereign Spanish territory.
But Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has long drawn a red line on armed and uniformed Spanish officers operating on Gibraltar territory.
The result has meant that who has control of what will become a Schengen airport and what should be a fluid border inside European Union borders has been the thorny area where neither side is willing to budge.
Meanwhile, the Junta has consistently voiced its displeasure to Madrid at not being included in the negotiations, as well as the lack of transparency and consultation.
However, as Gibraltar is both a leading employer and investor in the Campo de Gibraltar region, it is in everyone’s interests to reach a deal before the EES causes havoc at the border.
The negotiations continue against the backdrop of a land reclamation project on the Rock’s east side that has raised the hackles of Spanish nationalists, who claim all the waters around the peninsula.
Recent reports have stated that a total of 61,711 stones and rubble from ‘illegal quarries’ in Spain have passed through the customs office in Línea de la Concepcion on their way to Gibraltar for the €340 million project.
They are being used to build the ambitious Eastside project to develop a large marina, business park and residential housing which will transform the character of the Rock.
