Spain and Britain come to a Brexit deal

Gibraltar came out of limbo in which it faced the British party of the European Union. Britain and Spain have come to an agreement that it will continue in the Shengen space and not be the last hard border of Brexit.

The fence, which separates the Rock from Spain, will be erected in six months and the border will be at the port and the airport, controlled by Frontex, the European border control agency.

“The United Kingdom and Spain have reached a first agreement on the status of Gibraltar after Brexit,” Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya reported on Thursday.

According to the agreement, “the territory will continue to be part of European Union agreements, such as the Schengen free movement area,” González Laya told reporters.

London and Madrid had negotiated how to monitor the land border between Spain and Gibraltar, which was excluded from the last-minute exit deal reached between Britain and the EU last week.

British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said: “Today, working side by side with the head of government of Gibraltar and after intense discussions with the Spanish government, we have reached agreement on a framework policy to form the basis of a separate treaty between the UK and the EU regarding Gibraltar. We will now send it to the European Commission, to begin negotiations on the formal treaty. “

All parties are committed to mitigating the effects of the end of the transition period in Gibraltar. Especially for guarantee the fluidity of borders, which is clearly in the best interest of the people who live on both sides.

Out of agreement

Gibraltar has always been outside the customs union, excluded from the common agricultural policy. It was not part of the Schengen common area. In the Treaty of Lisbon, it is considered as “a European territory, the external relations of which are the responsibility of a Member State, Great Britain”.

The Rock, with its economy based on games, insurance and banking, was not included in the Brexit deal, which Britain and the EU signed on December 24.

With Britain out of Europe, Gibraltar’s special status came to an end at the start of the new year. Her fate was a great unknown until Thursday.

The trade agreement signed between London and Brussels does not provide for external relations, as admitted by European negotiator Michael Barnier. It was Great Britain that had to negotiate and clarify the status of Gibraltar with Spain.

During these key days fears grew that the Gibraltar-Spain border would turn into a fleet of trucks, like what happened in Britain for Christmas, unless a post-Brexit deal is reached .

Foreign relations were not finalized in the Brexit deal, which was ratified by the UK House of Commons on Wednesday. Gibraltar was one of the outstanding issues.

The Spanish-Gibraltarian border, where 30 million crosses per year, it was not included in the trade pact announced on Christmas Eve. If this separate agreement was not reached by next Friday, a hard border would be created. At least 15,000 people pass through this passage every day, most of them Spaniards who work in Gibraltar.

The Spanish will not need a passport to enter this territory but the British will because they do not belong to Shengen.

The Gibraltar talks, which also involve the territorial government, plan to become part of the Schengen area. An area that covers 26 European countries, without border controls between them.

Britons traveling to Gibraltar should remain subject to passport and customs checks. But all travelers entering the territory by land would only be subject to customs control. The only planes that arrive at its small airport come from Great Britain or Morocco.

The coalition government, led by the socialists of Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, has stepped aside, but has not resigned, to the claim of sovereignty from your country to Gibraltar. Spain insisted it wanted to comment on the future of Gibraltar, which has a population of 34,000 and depends on 15,000 workers, more than half of its workforce, who travel every day from there ‘Spain.

Concessions

Spain and Gibraltar have made concessions, including the formulation of a tax treaty, which would allow the Spaniards to stop classifying the territory as a “tax haven”, as until now. Gibraltar has legislated so that the price of tobacco is never more than 32% lower than the Spanish retail price.

Gibraltar’s head of government Fabian Picardo has warned Britain of the security threat of this territory which represents Brexit. They had no voice or vote in the negotiations between Brussels and Great Britain, as the responsibility for their external relations lies with the kingdom, as well as its defense and internal security.

In a European Council guide to negotiations with the 27, he declares that “after Britain’s departure from the Union, no agreement between the EU and Great Britain will be applied to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and Great Britain ”they argued.

Paris, correspondent