Brussels admits for the first time publicly what was an open secret: the negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the status of Gibraltar after Brexit they are at a standstill after three years and 18 rounds of dialogue. This has been confessed by one of the vice presidents of the community Executive, the Greek Margaritis Schinasprovoking the wrath of the Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares.
“In Gibraltar There is a negotiation that lasts longer than expected. We have tried to help because part of the negotiation is how the Gate will be controlled, the access of Spanish and European workers who will enter Gibraltar. There are ideas: we have offered the role of Frontex, which is a European agency, to take on this kind of responsibility. Our British friends think that Frontex is very European“Schinas said this Thursday during an event in Seville.
“I don't think it will have worked out before the European elections. And I think some involved in the negotiation wanted to project a certain optimism that in reality this is not happening,” said the Vice President of the Commission. The last negotiating round between the EU and the United Kingdom – the eighteenth – took place from March 20 to 22 in Brussels, without any concrete progress being recorded. The dialogue also develops with maximum secrecy.
[Albares advierte a Reino Unido: si no hay acuerdo sobre Gibraltar se impondrá “la ley de la UE”]
Schinas' words have been interpreted as a full-blown zasca to Albares himself. The Foreign Minister already in November 2022 sold that the agreement on Gibraltar was imminent. Furthermore, in his last meeting with the head of British diplomacy, David CameronAlbares set the European elections of June 2024 as the deadline to close the pact.
The Foreign Minister has expressed his discomfort at the vice president's statements, which he has labeled as “unfortunate and incomprehensible” because he “does not deal at all with the Withdrawal Agreement dossier regarding Gibraltar”. “I hope that from now on only the commissioner in charge of this negotiation, which is Maros Sefcovic, will be the one to rule on the matter,” he said. in an interview on RNE.
Albares has personally conveyed his displeasure to Schinas himself and he has responded that “it was not his intention, that he was sorry, that he did not have all the information and he basically apologized“, according to the minister's version. The head of Spanish diplomacy has also spoken with Sefcovic and both have agreed that “the negotiations (on Gibraltar) are progressing at a good pace.”
Late Thursday night, the European Commission published a strange statement signed jointly by Albares and Sefcovic in order to deny Schinas, although without naming him.
“Negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar are progressing as planned. We are entering a delicate phase of the negotiations. On the EU side, the negotiations are led by the European Commission under the political responsibility of Executive Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who speaks on behalf of the Commission on this matter,” reads the very brief statement.
Spain and United Kingdom reached an agreement on New Year's Eve 2020 to tear down the Gibraltar fence once Brexit is completed. The priority objective was facilitate the transit of the more than 10,000 Spanish workers who cross the border every day and create an “area of shared prosperity.” The controls would be moved to the port and the Peñón airport and would be exercised by Frontex during a transitional period of four years. For the sake of the pact, Madrid and London decided to put aside their dispute over the sovereignty of the Rock.
This agreement should have been quickly translated into a new Treaty between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the Rock, negotiated by the Ursula von der Leyen Commission. However, negotiations between Brussels and London have dragged on agonizingly, with no end in sight.
Four years after the United Kingdom left the European Union, the status of Gibraltar is the only issue with Brexit that has not yet been resolved. The question of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which a priori seemed the most difficult, was closed in March 2023 with the Windsor agreement between President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The great obstacle from the beginning of the negotiation is to define where they will be exactly where the new border controls will be in the port and airport of El Peñón and what will be the distribution of roles between the Spanish security forces and the European border guards of Frontex once the Fence is removed.
Another pending problem is the formula for shared use of the Gibraltar airport that Spain demands. The United Kingdom's position is that it will not accept any solution that calls into question its sovereignty over Gibraltar.
