The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will travel to London in the coming weeks to try to reach an agreement with his new British counterpart, David Lammy, on Gibraltar’s relationship with the EU after Brexit, according to sources close to a negotiation that has been going on for three years.
Although both parties have avoided setting deadlines, the sources consulted estimate that this is the “last chance” to reach an agreement, due to two circumstances: the new European Commission is expected to be elected in November and the entire negotiating team will be changed by the EU – which is the party that must sign the agreement with the United Kingdom – and on that same date the new Entry/Exit System (SES) of the Schengen area will come into force and, for the first time since Brexit was completed, the border crossing will be subject to the same controls as if it were a third country, putting an end to the limbo that it has benefited from for the last 43 months.
According to the sources consulted, if Albares and Lammy were to bring their positions closer enough to leave the agreement pre-cooked, a new three-way meeting would be held in Brussels with the European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, like those already held without success in April and May, when the conservative David Cameron headed the Foreign Office, with the difference that now there is no room for a new failure.
Albares and Lammy had already had a first meeting in Washington on July 7, on the sidelines of the NATO summit, just 48 hours after the latter took office, and both agreed to “work from now on” to improve bilateral relations and “reach an agreement on Gibraltar,” according to the Spanish minister. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also met with the new British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, on July 18 in Oxfordshire (England), where the summit of the European Political Community (EPC) was held, and both were convinced, according to La Moncloa, that the agreement on Gibraltar was “very close.”
However, despite the optimism generated by the fact that the governments of Madrid and London have the same political colour, as does that of Gibraltar, in recent months the negotiation has “hit a nerve” in matters of high symbolic voltage, according to the sources consulted,
The most contentious point is Madrid’s demand that Spanish agents who are to carry out the control of passengers arriving in Gibraltar be armed and in uniform, and that they be able to move freely around the entire border perimeter. The British side rejects the idea that Spanish agents should be armed, arguing that the British traditionally do not carry weapons, while the Chief Minister of the Rock, Fabian Picardo, does not want to hear about the possibility of Spanish uniforms being seen inside the colony. “There will be no Spanish boots on the ground,” he said. For its part, Spain argues that a specific protocol cannot be designed for Gibraltar and that if Gibraltarians want to join the European border-free area they must accept the Schengen procedures.
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The United Kingdom agrees that Spanish police officers will carry out checks inside an airport facility, theoretically located in no-man’s land, where they would check travel documents and could question any suspicious passengers, while agents from the European border agency (Frontex) and Gibraltar’s own police officers would act in front of the public. Spain, however, demands that its police officers not be confined to these facilities but can move freely around the airport to carry out checks. on site and also to move to the port to control the passage of cruise ships and ferries. A claim that Gibraltar rejects outright.
However, the negotiations have managed to overcome some of the most complex obstacles. For example, the sources consulted say that a status has been agreed for Gibraltar airport, through a formula that the Spanish side describes as “joint use” and the British side as “Spanish involvement in its management”. This was a particularly sensitive point in the negotiations, since the aerodrome is built on the isthmus, which Spain considers illegally occupied by the United Kingdom.
The tax on goods from the Rock is also being resolved. The British delegation – which includes representatives from Gibraltar – rejects the imposition of VAT on its products, but agrees to introduce an equivalent rate to prevent the Campo de Gibraltar from being flooded by goods imported from the British colony when La Verja is abolished. On the other hand, Spain agrees that Gibraltar should apply a lower corporate tax, since this tax is not harmonised between EU countries, but obtains in exchange an equalisation of the special taxes on alcohol or tobacco.
A formula has also been found to compensate Spaniards who have worked on the Rock and receive a lower pension than their counterparts living in the colony: a fund will be created jointly financed by Spain and the United Kingdom to pay them the difference and end discrimination.
The fine print on many of these and other issues is still to be finalised. For example, the list of “derogations” is being finalised; that is, the list of categories of personnel and material that will be exempt from control by the Spanish authorities upon entering Gibraltar. London demands that this section include, among others, military personnel and material destined for the British naval base.
The fact that so much progress has been made in such a complex negotiation indicates, according to the sources consulted, that there is a will on both sides to reach an agreement in which each will have to make concessions to achieve a higher objective: the demolition of La Verja and the creation of a unified economic and social space in Campo de Gibraltar. During the summer, the exchange of drafts and technical proposals between the negotiators has not ceased. The question is whether everything will blow up over a question of uniforms and guns. More symbolic than real.