José Manuel Albares and Fabian Picardo staged this Wednesday in Madrid that the agreement on Gibraltar has already entered a new phase: that of its political and institutional landing. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chief Minister of the Rock held their first bilateral meeting at the Viana Palace with the aim of beginning to oil the machinery for the provisional entry into force of the pact sealed between the European Union and the United Kingdom, scheduled for July 15.
The meeting, of which Foreign Affairs offered a brief but significant assessment, served to confirm that, once the main political obstacle was cleared with the unanimous support of the 27 on April 1, it is now time to lower the agreement to the ground. According to Ministry sources, Albares and Picardo addressed the “preparation of the provisional entry into force and implementation of the EU-UK agreement with respect to Gibraltar.” Translated: put order in the technical, administrative and logistical details that will have to sustain a change of enormous significance in the daily life of the Rock and Campo de Gibraltar. Some flaws that are, precisely, the aspects that since the beginning of the agreement have most concerned Juan Franco, mayor of La Línea de la Concepción, the main municipality affected by the elimination of La Verja and whose economy is closely linked to the economy of the British colony. The rise in housing prices is one of their great concerns.
Neither the European PP nor the national PP in Brussels have clarified whether they will vote in favor of the Gibraltar agreement when it has to be ratified in the European Parliament
It wasn’t just any date. Although both have been present throughout the long negotiating process opened after Brexit, they had never before participated in a bilateral meeting of this profile. The photograph in an official Foreign Office headquarters in Madrid also has a high political value between these two socialist governments, when it is still support for the European PP agreement in the airwith the Spanish acting as advance guard.
From the diplomatic screen to download to the application
Albares and Picardo have already moved from the screen of diplomatic negotiation to that of designing the deployment of the agreement with very concrete consequences on the ground, hence Foreign Affairs has announced that this Thursday they will travel to Campo de Gibraltar to meet with mayors and social agents and visit the works around the Gate.
The disappearance of the land border between both territories – the last border in continental Europe – entails a change in controlswhich will be carried out in the Gibraltarian port and airport, by the National Police, to guarantee the application of the Schengen rules. Along with this, the door opens to airport sharingto one customs union between Gibraltar and the EU and the implementation in the Rock of a indirect tax figure comparable to VATwith the aim of correcting historical imbalances, especially in products such as tobacco and gasoline.
There are still pending ratifications in London and in the European institutions, and the question of sovereignty remains carefully outside the text so as not to step on too many toes. But this Wednesday’s meeting leaves a clear idea: the agreement on Gibraltar is already facing its application to begin a new stage in the Campo de Gibraltar.
