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Brussels (AFP) – The Spanish demand for a veto over the future of Gibraltar was imminent Saturday and was the last stumbling block on the road to a good Brexit deal, while Theresa May went to Brussels for interviews of one hour eleven.
The British prime minister plans to meet European leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, although European diplomats insist that the deal is over and ready to be approved Sunday by European leaders.
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned that he would boycott Sunday's summit if London and Brussels did not confirm his country's veto over any future deal on relations with Gibraltar.
If there is no final agreement on the British withdrawal treaty and on a political statement on relations between the EU and the UK after Brexit, Tusk could be forced to cancel the summit and plunge the process back into doubt.
This would undermine May's proposal to sell his draft Brexit agreement to a hostile parliament in London and increase the risk of a "Brexit without agreement" which, according to most observers, would be an economic calamity.
"At this point, the EUCO Summit is still scheduled for tomorrow as we are still working on finding a solution in Gibraltar with and for Spain," said a European official at AFP. .
A source from the European Commission said: "We are in constant contact with Spain."
Nothing in the painful 17-month withdrawal process went off smoothly and on Friday, Sanchez insisted that Madrid has a veto over the fate of Gibraltar during any post-Brexit negotiations over the new EU-UK relations.
On a visit to Cuba, Mr Sanchez said that Spain was to negotiate directly with London in Gibraltar and approve any changes to its relations with the European Union as part of a future agreement between the Great Britain and Brussels.
"If there is no agreement, what will happen is very clear, there will probably be no European Council," he said, referring to Sunday's summit of 27 European leaders before the meeting with May.
Gibraltar, a rocky outcrop harboring a port and about 30,000 inhabitants, is a British territory claimed by Spain and a bone of contention as London negotiates a new relationship with Brussels after Brexit on March 29th.
In London, a Downing Street source insisted: "We have negotiated on behalf of the entire British family, which includes Gibraltar and the overseas territories".
On the legal front, Spain's disapproval would not put an end to the divorce settlement, but it would embarrass European leaders eager to show that the 27 are united and could delay Sunday's largely symbolic summit.
– More uncertainty –
And, as Madrid has noted, any definite relationship negotiated between London and Brussels after the Brexit of March 29 should be approved by all remaining member states, which would give Spain an additional veto.
May is scheduled Saturday in Brussels to meet European Commission President Juncker, head of the bloc's executive, and EU Council President, Tusk, whose institution represents the Member States .
European diplomats, however, told AFP that further substantive negotiations were not planned for this weekend and that it was hoped that Sunday's summit would simply see the leaders sign the talks. fruit of 17 months of dialogue.
A European source said the minutes of the meeting would include text stressing the importance for Britain of maintaining a level playing field for companies during the 21-month post-Brexit transition.
The summit will give the European Council an advance on the Commission in negotiating future links – partly to reassure Madrid that its voice will be heard before any final settlement.
After that, May will still have to sell the deal to the British Parliament, an even bigger political challenge.
May declined to say if she would resign if Parliament ended up rejecting the divorce agreement, but the political temperature in Westminster reached its boiling point.
"If we were to leave the EU without an agreement, I do not doubt that the consequences for the UK economy would be really serious," warned British Finance Minister Philip Hammond.
"This agreement will be concluded tomorrow and then our job is to present it to the British people, to MPs and to defend, in the national interest, its support for this agreement," he told the BBC.
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