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Could the Spaniards worry about the progress of Brexit?
How is the Spain / Gibraltar issue threatened for the Brexit Summit on Sunday?
Well, it could be huge or just a puff of smoke. Madrid and Downing Street say they work there.
There is not much time left for the question to take one or the other form.
British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with European leaders in Brussels to sign the Brexit texts in just over 36 hours.
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has the feeling of being cheated and angry, aside from his national audience.
Gibraltar is of great national interest and hurts a lot of pride for many Spaniards. During the Franco dictatorship, the official policy of the government was to recover what the Spaniards nicknamed "El Peñón" (The Rock).
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The small peninsula of Gibraltar is a British territory since 1713
After the UK's vote on Brexit, Spain has at least had the opportunity to regain considerable influence over Gibraltar.
Eyebrows arose in the UK at the very beginning of the Article 50 process when Article 24 of the EU's negotiating directives stipulated: "After the UK has left the United Kingdom, Union, no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom can apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom ".
In reality, however, the bilateral talks between the United Kingdom and Spain that took place in parallel with the EU-UK Brexit negotiations went smoothly … until recently.
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Spanish resentment began to accentuate after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his team proposed to enter a "tunnel" with British negotiators – blocking the noise political and media – with the aim of getting out of the long deadlock over the wording of the Irish record "" – this guarantee to avoid a border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
It is at this point that Spain feels "betrayed".
By the time the EU and UK negotiators emerged, Irish support had become a UK-wide customs area, which meant that it was potentially in the process of to get lost in the territory of the post-Brexit trade agreement.
Yet neither in this text, nor in the draft political declaration on future EU-UK relations released on Thursday, are mentioned Gibraltar and the need for approval by Spain.
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Prime Minister Sánchez believes that the positive attitude that Spain has shown in bilateral negotiations on Brexit over Gibraltar is currently being violated. this Spanish national interest was sacrificed in the tunnel in order to offer an additional "sweetener" in the UK as part of wider Brexit negotiations.
The negotiators of the European Commission categorically deny it.
But Spain is not alone in thinking that the priorities of the different EU countries have been ignored during the tunnel negotiations.
France, Denmark and the Netherlands were disappointed by their EU negotiators to determine the fishing rights in force in British waters in the political declaration on relations between the EU and the Kingdom United after Brexit.
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We have now heard that the fishing problem has been "solved" (for the moment). The details must still appear.
This means that Gibraltar is the only issue outstanding before Sunday's Brexit summit, according to the EU.
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Fishing is another controversial issue in the Brexit negotiations
Now, the Spanish Prime Minister is extremely pro-European. He sees himself a bit like Macron's number two.
It is not in its nature to sabotage the plans of the EU or a European summit.
Remember that when Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini refused to embark migrant boats earlier this year, Mr Sánchez was the first to intervene to help avert a European crisis – and also to win brownie dots in Brussels.
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Pedro Sánchez is subject to a lot of domestic pressure. He runs a minority government and has been repeatedly accused by the main conservative opposition of being "indulgent" on Gibraltar during Brexit negotiations.
He is also facing elections in the politically important region of Andalusia on 2 December. A part of Spain that neighbors – you guessed it – The Rock.
It is possible that the Spanish Prime Minister has learned a lesson from the Italian Deputy Prime Minister: if you dig in the heels of the EU, you can get results.
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Matteo Salvini is a harsh critic of the EU
He knows, of course, that the Brexit summit in November was Theresa's insistence in May; that the EU thought that it was possible to seal the agreement next month instead.
This knowledge is in the back pocket of Mr. Sánchez.
It is important to keep in mind that even if Spain has no veto over the Brexit divorce agreement, European leaders must make their decisions by consensus at their summits. In reality, they do not raise their hands to vote.
There is no way to give a stamp to a text designed for an outgoing member (the United Kingdom) while an existing member (Spain) is so strongly opposed.
It is true that the European Union has less solidarity with Gibraltar in relation to Spain than in Ireland over the border problem. . But the European Union is so proud of the very unusual unity that reigns among its members about Brexit, they will not want to abandon it so late.
Spain could therefore exercise a moral or political "veto" on Sunday.
Which means that although Spain does not have an official veto right, it could exert moral and political objections that would effectively prevent other countries from voting against it.
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Concerns over a hard border between the United Kingdom and Ireland have been a key element of the Brexit negotiations
EU insiders do not think that it will boil down to that. They think that this can be solved without reopening the Brexit texts noting Spain's insistence on the continuation of bilateral negotiations between the United Kingdom and Madrid, in a statement added to the texts or at the same time. 39, other possible formulas of the EU.
But even if the Spanish opposition disappears before Sunday, the bitterness about Gibraltar, fishing rights, as to the assurance that the UK does not have any competitive advantage over report to European companies under a post-Brexit trade agreement, are examples of the substantial hurdles that the UK will face EU countries to negotiate a trade deal with the EU after Brexit.
And it is an agreement that the parliaments of all EU countries – including that of Spain – will have to ratify unanimously.
