Spain will have the last word on who enters Gibraltar under a preliminary agreement on border agreements for the territory of the United Kingdom, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told El País in a interview.
The responsibility for overseeing the new terms of the Schengen agreement without a passport for entry to Gibraltar’s port and airport, as provided for in the agreement, would lie with Spain, Gonzalez told the newspaper.
“Evidently, there must be a Spanish presence to carry out the minimum Schengen control tasks,” she said.
Under the agreement, however, no government has given up an inch in its claims to sovereignty over the territory, she told El País.
“What we saw is a paradigm shift that is not made by concessions, but by a convergence of interests between Gibraltarians and Spaniards, both pro-Europeans,” said Gonzalez. “This is the fruit of Brexit.”
Separately, Fabian Picardo, the prime minister of Gibraltar, said that only the Gibraltar authorities would decide who enters the territory.
“Under the New Year’s Eve Agreement, only Gibraltar will decide who enters Gibraltar and Spanish officials will not exercise any control over Gibraltar at the airport or port now or in four years,” he said on Twitter. “This is our land.”
Spain and the United Kingdom signed a last-minute deal on December 31 to avoid stricter controls on the movement of people and goods into the territory at the entrance to the Mediterranean that has been under British control since 1713.
Read more: Gibraltar Dodges Hard Brexit After Spain, UK Reach Accord (1)
During a four-year implementation period, officials from the European border agency Frontex will assist with controls at the port and at the airport, with Spain being the party responsible for overseeing the new Schengen agreements.
The United Kingdom remains firm in its support for Gibraltar and its sovereignty has been safeguarded, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement on Thursday.
(Updates with comments from the Prime Minister of Gibraltar in the seventh paragraph.)