BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Although corks may have appeared in London and Brussels at the end of a four-year saga known as Brexit, there is a rocky speck of British soil still in limbo.
Gibraltar, a British colony protruding from the southern tip of the Spanish continent, was not included in the Brexit trade agreement announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the United Kingdom to reorganize trade relations between the now 27-member bloc and the first nation to leave the group.
The deadline for Gibraltar continues on 1 January, when a transitional period that regulates the short border between Gibraltar and Spain ends. If no agreement is reached, there are serious concerns that a rigid border could cause inconvenience to workers, tourists and important business connections on both sides.
Spain has managed to convince the EU to separate the Gibraltar issue from the larger Brexit negotiations, which means that Madrid is dealing with all negotiations directly with its counterparts in Gibraltar and London.
Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said on Thursday that if a deal is not reached, she fears that the long lines of truckers trapped in the English Channel crossing last week could be repeated.
“We don’t have much time, and the chaos scenes in the UK should remind us that we need to continue working to reach an agreement in Gibraltar,” González Laya told Spanish state broadcaster RTVE. “The Spaniards want one, the people of Gibraltar want one, now the UK needs it too. Political will is needed. “
During the Brexit negotiations, Spain insisted that it wants to have a say in the future of Gibraltar.
The Rock was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain never gave up on its claim to sovereignty over it. For three centuries, the strategic outcrop of elevated terrain has given British navies control of the narrow maritime path from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
“Neither side will renounce its claims to sovereignty, but we must put that aside to reach an agreement that will make life easier for those who live on both sides of the border,” said González Laya.
More than 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, representing about 50% of Gibraltar’s workforce. Gibraltar’s population of about 34,000 was overwhelmingly against Britain’s departure from the European Union. In the 2016 UK Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported staying in the continental bloc, which they consider to have more power to deal with the government in Madrid.
The territory still remembers how, in 1969, the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco closed the border in an attempt to destroy the economy of Gibraltar.
The Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, said that the post-Brexit trade agreement “is a great relief, given the potential difficulties that a Brexit without an agreement could have created for the United Kingdom and the European Union”.
But he added that his territory is still at risk.
“This deal does not cover Gibraltar. For us, and for the people of Campo de Gibraltar around us, time is still running, ”said Picardo in a statement.
“We continue to work, side by side with the United Kingdom, to finalize negotiations with Spain on an agreement for a proposed treaty between the EU and the United Kingdom in relation to Gibraltar,” he said.
Picardo recently told Spain’s Cadena SER radio that “a Schengen-style agreement would be the most positive outcome” to facilitate the 30 million annual border crossings between Gibraltar and Spain.
Europe’s Schengen area consists of about two dozen nations that have agreed to eliminate general traveler’s checks within the group, although some local checks have been reintroduced due to the pandemic. Britain is not part of the Schengen group.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government also said it is committed to finding a solution that includes “ensuring smooth borders, which is clearly in the best interest of communities living on both sides”.
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