Spain asks Brussels to accelerate negotiations on Gibraltar after a year of contacts without progress

BRUSSELS, Nov. 10 () –

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has asked the European Commission this Thursday to accelerate negotiations with the United Kingdom to close the agreement that defines the EU’s relations with Gibraltar after the lack of progress after thirteen months.

During his visit to the community capital to meet with the Commissioner for Inter-institutional Relations, Maros Sefcovic, responsible for relations with the British, the Foreign Minister has demanded that he increase the pace of meetings with the United Kingdom and has presented the ” Spanish global proposal” for the Rock and the Campo de Gibraltar area.

“There is a global proposal that I have transferred to you and that the Commission has to make its own and give content to the agreement,” said Albares, while insisting on the need to end the dialogue between London and Brussels and start drafting soon the deal.

However, he has indicated that he perceives “political will on both sides” to move forward and has been “positive” about the reactivation of the talks that have been subject to several changes of government in London and the crisis due to the pandemic.

Madrid and London announced in December 2020 an interim agreement for Gibraltar that would avoid chaos on January 1, 2021, when Brexit would be consummated without having previously defined a specific framework for the territory’s relationship with the European Union.

Then, Spain said it had reached an agreement with the United Kingdom to remove the land barriers and announced that agents from the European Border Control Agency would take control of the entries and exits through the airport and port of Gibraltar.

The European Commission, however, in its proposal for a negotiating mandate for the 27 left exclusively in the hands of the Spanish authorities the responsibility of controlling those steps if the Gate was dropped, something that irritated the British Government who considered that extreme “unacceptable” .