Simon Hunter
SPANISH Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares will make a visit to London in the coming weeks as part of a last-ditch effort to save a post-Brexit deal on Gibraltar.
That’s according to Spanish daily El Pais, which reports that Albares will be meeting with his new British counterpart, David Lammy, to try to hammer out the British Overseas Territory’s relationship with the European Union now that the UK has left the bloc.
The clock is ticking for the deal to be struck, given that the EU’s negotiating team is expected to be renewed in November, while around the same time the EU’s new Entry/Exit System for the automatic monitoring of border crossings in the Schengen Area will come into force.
The introduction of the system will mean that the border crossing between Gibraltar and Spain will be subject to the same controls as if the British Territory were a third country.
Sources consulted by El Pais said that if Albares and Lammy are able to come to an agreement, a three-way meeting with the vice-president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, could then be held to seal the deal.
Since the Labour government of Prime Minister Kier Starmer took power in the UK, Albares and Lammy have met once, at the Nato summit in Washington on July 7.
They committed to improving bilateral relations between their countries and also said that they would strive to reach a deal on Gibraltar.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also met with Keir Starmer, on July 18 in Oxfordshire.
According to the Moncloa presidential palace, both said they were convinced that a Gibraltar deal was ‘very close’.
El Pais reported that the main sticking points between Spain and the UK are demands from Madrid that Spanish officers who man border posts and check arrivals in Gibraltar be armed and wear uniform, as well as being able to freely circulate around the border area.
The UK has rejected this demand given that British authorities are not usually armed.
Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, has also rejected the possibility of uniformed Spanish officers inside the territory.
In other areas, meanwhile, agreement has already been reached.
For example, a special fund is going to be created by Spain and the UK so that Spaniards who have worked in Gibraltar but live in Spain will receive the same pension as those who reside in the British Overseas Territory.
Gibraltar was ceded by Spain to the British Crown in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, but it has been subject to a sovereignty claim by the Spanish since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Gibraltarians voted to remain in the European Union during the Brexit vote, but the UK’s eventual exit from the bloc after ‘leave’ won at the 2016 referendum left the territory in something of a limbo, a situation that the hoped-for deal between the three sides is aimed at resolving.
