BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – While corks may have fallen in London and Brussels during the end of a four-year saga known as Brexit, there is still a rocky patch of British soil in limbo.
Gibraltar, a British colony jutting at the southern tip of mainland Spain, was not included in the Brexit trade agreement announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the United Kingdom to reinforce commercial and trade relations between the now 27-member bloc and the United Kingdom. the first country to leave the group.
The deadline for Gibraltar remains January 1, when a transition period regulating the short border between Gibraltar and Spain ends. If no deal is reached, there are serious concerns that a hard border would cause disruption to workers, tourists and important business connections on both sides.
Spain has managed to persuade the EU to separate the Gibraltar issue from the larger Brexit negotiations, meaning Madrid will handle all talks directly with its counterparts in Gibraltar and London.
Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said on Thursday that if no agreement is reached, she fears that the long lines of stranded truck drivers seen crossing the English Channel last week could be repeated.
“We don’t have much time, and the chaos in the UK should remind us that we have to keep working to reach a deal on Gibraltar,” González Laya told Spanish state broadcaster RTVE. “Spaniards want one, the people of Gibraltar want one, now the UK must want one too. Political will is needed. “
During the Brexit talks, Spain has insisted that it wants a say in Gibraltar’s future.
The Rock was ceded to Great Britain in 1713, but Spain has never abandoned its claim to sovereignty over it. For three centuries, the strategic opening up of high ground has placed British navies in command of the narrow seaway from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
“Neither side will relinquish its pretensions of sovereignty, but we must put that aside in order to reach an agreement that will make life easier for those living on both sides of the border,” González Laya said.
More than 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, which accounts for 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 Brexit referendum in the UK, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported staying in the continental bloc that they believe would have more leverage to do business with the government in Madrid.
The area still remembers how Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco closed the border in 1969 in an attempt to devastate Gibraltar’s economy.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the post-Brexit trade deal is “a huge relief given the potential problems a no-deal Brexit may have caused for the UK and the European Union.”
But he added that his territory is still in danger.
“This deal does not concern Gibraltar. For us, and for the people of the Campo de Gibraltar around us, the clock is still ticking, ”Picardo said in a statement.
“We will continue to work closely with the UK to finalize negotiations with Spain on an agreement on a proposed treaty between the EU and the UK regarding Gibraltar,” he said.
Picardo recently told Spain’s Cadena SER radio that “a Schengen fashion agreement would be the most positive” outcome to facilitate the 30 million annual border crossings between Gibraltar and Spain.
The European Schengen area is made up of about 20 countries that have agreed to abolish general intra-group travel controls, although some local controls have been reintroduced due to the pandemic. Great 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 border fluidity, which is clearly in the best interest of the communities living on both sides”.
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