BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Although corks may have appeared in London and Brussels at the end of a four-year saga known as Brexit, there is still a rocky piece of British earth in limbo.
Gibraltar, a British colony that juts out at the southern tip of the Spanish peninsula, was not included in the Brexit trade agreement announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the United Kingdom to reorganize trade and trade relations between the ‘current block of 27 the first nation to leave the group.
The deadline for Gibraltar continues on 1 January, when a transitional period governing the short border between Gibraltar and Spain expires. If no agreement is reached, there are serious concerns that a hard border will cause disruptions for workers, tourists and important trade connections on both sides.
Spain managed to convince the EU to separate the issue of Gibraltar from the big Brexit negotiations, which means that Madrid handles 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 the long lines of stranded truck drivers seen on the English Channel crossing last week could be repeated.
“We don’t have much time and the scenes of the chaos in the UK have to remind us that we have to keep working to reach an agreement on Gibraltar,” González Laya told Spanish channel RTVE. “The Spaniards want it, the people of Gibraltar want it, now the United Kingdom must want it too. Political will is needed. “
Throughout the talks on Brexit, Spain has insisted that it wants to express its opinion on the future of Gibraltar.
The Rock was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has never ceased to claim its sovereignty. For three centuries, the high-rise strategic outcrop has given the British navies dominance of the narrow sea route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.
“Neither side will relinquish its claims to sovereignty, but we must set it aside 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 represents approximately 50% of Gibraltar’s active population. The population of Gibraltar, which had about 34,000 inhabitants, was overwhelming against the exit of the European Union to Britain. In the 2016 UK Brexit referendum, 96% of Gibraltar voters supported staying in the continental bloc which they believe gives them more influence to deal with the Madrid government.
The territory still remembers how, in 1969, Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco closed the border in an attempt to destroy Gibraltar’s economy.
Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo said the post-Brexit trade deal “is a great relief given the potential difficulties that a Brexit without an agreement could have created for the UK and the European Union”.
But he added that his territory is still at risk.
“This agreement does not cover Gibraltar. For us and for the people of the Gibraltar countryside around us, the clock is still ticking, ”Picardo said in a statement.
“We continue to work, with the help of the United Kingdom, to finalize the negotiation with Spain of an agreement for a proposed treaty between the EU and the United Kingdom in relation to Gibraltar,” he said.
Picardo recently told Spanish radio station Cadena SER that “an agreement in the manner of Schengen would be the most positive result” to facilitate the 30 million annual border crossings between Gibraltar and Spain.
Europe’s Schengen area is made up of about two dozen countries that have agreed to eliminate general travel controls within the group, although some local controls have been reintroduced due to the pandemic. Britain is not part of the Schengen group.
The government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also stated that it is committed to finding a solution that includes “ensuring border fluidity, which is clearly in the best interest of communities living on both sides.”
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