Gibraltar is, for the United Kingdom, a large military base that controls access to the Mediterranean. There they repair, repair and supply their War ships and its nuclear submarines. For Spain, what comes in and what comes out of the rock is an unknown. This will partially change when the treaty on the lace of the British colony in space is finished Schengen and the Customs Unionsomething that is expected to occur for the coming months.
“The agreement includes provisions related to the military base: Spain will have for the first time Access to complete information about goods and people that they arrive in it to ensure that the Schengen and Customs Union collection also apply to the base, “said Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in the Congress of Deputies, where he appears to explain part of the agreement with London, reached on June 16 between the European Union and the United Kingdom with the acquiescence of Space y Gibraltar.
Spanish Police controls
The priority objective of the agreement is Brink the gate that separates the line from the conception and the rest of the Spanish Gibraltar field of the British colony. There the controls of people and goods were carried out so far. Once eliminated to allow fluid traffic, these controls will be carried out in the port and the airport directly. “Schengen controls in Puerto and Airport The Spanish Police will be carried out“Albares said. This was one of the most rejected points by the Gibraltar government, which saw him as a symbolic intrusion in his sovereignty, played by Spain.
Images of the border between Spain and the Peñón de Gibraltar. As of June 12, 2025 in the line of conception, Cádiz (Andalusia). The European Union and the United Kingdom have reached on Wednesday a political agreement with which to put an end to the five years of Limbo in which Gibraltar was after the British divorce of the block and that will allow suppressing the gate between Spain and the Peñón. June 12, 2025 Francisco J. Olmo/Europa Press 06/12/2025. Francisco J. Olmo / Francisco J. Olmo / Europa Press
In the statement on the agreement it was said that “the parties have agreedand they will carry out through full cooperation Among the authorities of the EU and the United Kingdom/Gibraltar. “
Assets of taxes to merchandise
The minister has begun his presentation greeting the relevant actors of the Campo de Gibraltar present at the Guest Tribune of Congress. The minister has listed the dozens of meetings he has held with dozens of political and economic organizations and actors in the area, including the Andalusian president Juanma Moreno Bonillato which he thanked the support he has given to this agreement.
The minister has not given concrete figures on many of the parts of the agreement, which is still secret in its details. “Gibraltar will implement a Spanish -like tax and never lower than the Europeor “, he said. The levels” will be aligned with European regulations “to avoid distortions.” So far there were articles not taxed or with only 6%, “says Albares.
All this will guarantee, promise, the mobility of goods and the elimination of all physical barriers, while guarantees “reasonable competitiveness” between the parties. The controls will be done “by land, after the customs office in Spanish customs positions.”
According to the minister, this will promote trade in the port of Algeciras. There will also be a prices control over tobacco and alcohol, one of the main problems with Gibraltar, which has been the epicenter of tobacco smuggling, at a lower price.
Gibraltar airport. / Patricia Godino / Patricia Godino
“Las environmental issues It will have a specific chapter, specifically for the treatment of waste and discharges, “Albares added. The residents of the area complain that Gibraltar eliminates their fecal waters to the sea without being treated.
There will also be coordination in social security and A social fund for Spanish workers in Gibraltar, which has estimated in 50% of the Gibraltareña workforce. Every day, some 30,000 people cross the fence. Gibraltar workers have a complement to their pensions that did not apply, so far at least, the Spaniards and foreigners who move there daily from the line and nearby cities.
New relationship with the United Kingdom
The prognosis that can be demolished “the last wall of Europe”, in the words of Albares, has allowed to improve the relationship with the United Kingdom, which is not only a huge commercial partner and origin of tourism for Spain, but an ally NATO in a time that, the minister recalled, are turbulent, in reference without mentioning it to the War of Russia against Ukraine and the instability in the United States or the nearby East.
The gate, “built by the United Kingdom in 1908 to separate us,” said Albares, will fall when the text is specified and approved by the European Council and the Europarliament, in addition to by the United Kingdom itself.
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