The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom and Spain, David Lammy and José Manuel Albares, meets the SEFCOVIC, responsible for the negotiation by the European Commission, and the main minister of Peñón, Fabian Picardo, in what all parties expect the final event to reach a historical agreement on Gibraltar’s relations with the EU. This issue is, after the European Commission and the United Kingdom agreed at a bilateral summit last May in the framework of its future relations.
The last appointment at the ministerial level about Gibraltar was held in Brussels last September, although since then the contacts and exchange of documents at the technical level have not been interrupted between the parties. After almost three and a half years of negotiation (the first formal round was held in February 2022), one of the last pitfalls has been the tax regime of Gibraltar, to prevent goods and products from the colony from making unfair competition in the EU Single Market.
According to community sources, the method of application of Schengen controls – the European space without borders – at the Peñón Airport, a chapter in theory already agreed in recent days. The negotiators had agreed that they are Spanish and Gibraltareños police who carry out the controls, although the ultimate responsibility of entering the Schengen space will correspond in any case to Spain, thus regardless of the services of the European Border Agency (Frontex), which initially decided to request support for a transition period.
The head of the Foreign Office has traveled to Brussels from Gibraltar, where he has met with Picardo on Wednesday to finalize the “final parameters” of the agreement, in the words of the main minister Gibraltareño. “The time has come to try to finish the arrangements for a lasting and stable relationship between Gibraltar and the EU-Spain that is safe and beneficial and protects our citizens and gives certainty to cross-border workers with a view to bringing more prosperity to all in our part of the world,” said Picardo. More cautious has shown Lammy. “Let’s see what happens,” he has limited to say, reports the GBC News chain. The British Secretary of State for Europe, Stephen Doughty, has also attended the meeting.
