The European Union has explicitly defined Gibraltar as a "colony of the British crown"

Under pressure from Spain, the European Union (EU) has explicitly defined this Thursday Gibraltar like a "colony of the British crown", a change of position motivated by the departure of the UK from the block.

The tactics used are special: the controversial reference appeared in a footnote of a proposal on the future visa regime for the British after Brexit, which the European Parliament formalized on Thursday.

"This is a major shift in the EU's position," said the senior researcher at the Center for European Reform (CER), the British think tank Camino Mortera, for whom this is a consequence of Brexit.

The 27 British partners of the EU "Obviously, they must be on the side of club members and not on the side of leavers, which we see not only in Gibraltar, but especially in Ireland."added the badyst.

His inclusion was not without controversy. The Council of the EU, at the request of Spain, presented this note, which was opposed by the British Claude Moraes, President of the European Parliament, who blocked his treatment for weeks .

But before the pressure of the countries and the own Eurochamberwho wanted everything to be over in case of Brexit without agreement on April 12, Moraes was sidelined on Monday and the new president, Bulgarian Sergei Stanishev, authorized his proceedings..

The decision to dismiss Moraes "for his refusal to accept Gibraltar as a colony of the United Kingdom is absurd and unjustifiable," said the skeptical British MEP, Julia Reid, who accused Madrid of "abducting" the report.

"The British decided to leave. That does not mean that in addition to leaving, they want to decide our position."Spanish MEP Esteban González Pons, center-right, responded on Wednesday.

Airs of revenge
The decision releases winds of revanchism. Spain's accession to the European Communities at that time in 1986 took place 13 years after the British, for which it adopted Gibraltar status in the United Kingdom-bound bloc.

When Europeans adopted legislation referring to this strategic enclave of the southern Iberian Peninsula limited themselves to clarifying that there is "a dispute between Spain and the United Kingdom regarding sovereignty".

The inclusion in an EU regulation that "Gibraltar is a colony of the British Crown" presupposes a step towards the Spanish position which claims the sovereignty of the territory 32,000 inhabitants who surrendered in 1713 to Great Britain.

And, in addition, in words in March to the British newspaper The Guardian MEP Moraes, "Spain could start claiming" the enclave of international law. "That's why they wanted that definition," he added.

For the Elcano Royal Institute researcher, Salvador Llaudes, although the use of the term "colony" may seem "revolutionary" in the European Union "this remains something that the United Nations recognizes" .

The Court of Justice of the European Union itself (CJEU), in a judgment of June 2017, defines Gibraltar as a "colony" and recalls that is part of the UN's "List of Non-Self-Governing Territories", which also includes the Falkland Islands.

Sovereignty? Not so fast
Fearing that Madrid will use the change of European position to take action before international organizations, Llaudes believes that "sovereignty is something distinct", but the document "may help in the future" in Spain.

Although at the beginning of the Brexit process, the former Spanish Chancellor, José Manuel García-Margallo, proposed a "cosoberanía" on the Rock, Madrid focused on the settlement of outstanding disputes about Gibraltar, leaving aside its claim.

Throughout the Brexit negotiations, "the UK and Spain have accomplished much more discreetly to create a climate of increased confidence to solve a series of problems," said the badyst.

Spain, for example, signed a tax convention on Gibraltar in March with the UK to combat tax evasion and money laundering in that enclave, one of the signed bilateral agreements that also deal with citizens' rights. .

Mortera accepts that Madrid has argued for maintaining good relations with Gibraltar and that the claim of sovereignty is not timely, although, according to him, everything depends on the type of final Brexit and the parliamentary elections in Spain.

With a "right wing tripartite [en España] a little more radical "," there could be a reopening "of the issue of sovereignty, believes the badyst, a sensitive issue in the UK that could also come up with a Brexit without agreement.

(With information from AFP and EFE)