Brexit: Gibraltar, saved in extremis from “no deal”

Relief for the residents of Gibraltar: they will enter the Schengen area within six months. At the end of a tense negotiation between proud Spain and the equally proud England, an agreement on the free movement of people between the Rock, a disputed British enclave, and the Iberian Peninsula was found a few hours from December 31, midnight. The threat of a “no deal” would have had serious consequences in the lives of some 15,000 border workers who pass through “La Verja” (the name of the border) on a daily basis.

It was agreed that during the six-month transition period, each party will endeavor to “smooth” the passages, in the interest of all. The text signed Thursday is therefore, for the moment, only a “preliminary agreement”, welcomed “wholeheartedly” by Boris Johnson who recalls, in passing, that “the United Kingdom has always been and will remain totally attached to the protection of the interests of Gibraltar and of its British sovereignty ”. “We have reached an agreement in principle with the United Kingdom on Gibraltar which will allow us to remove barriers and move towards an area of ​​shared prosperity, tweeted for his part, Pedro Sanchez, the head of the Spanish government. Firmness in principles, progress for citizenship. ”

No passport for Spaniards

When Gibraltar joins the Schengen area, the land border will disappear. It will be the only British territory to be a member of Schengen. Customs controls will therefore be carried out at Gibraltar airport, which becomes an external border of the European Union. Spain wanted to perform the customs function itself. An unacceptable demand for the British. We cut the pear in half. During the period of “implementation” of the agreement, which will be spread over four years, the European agency Frontex will carry out the checks, but Spain will nevertheless be responsible for compliance with the Schengen Code. Concretely, this means that Frontex agents in the field will have to report to the Spanish authorities and justify the granting of visas ..

Anyone coming to Gibraltar from Spain will not need a passport. But arrivals of passengers from a British airport will have to present a passport since the United Kingdom is not part of the Schengen area. It sounds crooked, but it makes sense.

The Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, anachronistic?

The agreement, negotiated since June and concluded in extremis, needs to be completed in the coming months. It has been sent to the Brussels Commission, which is to include it in the agreement on future relations between the United Kingdom and the EU. It had been decided to extract this painful negotiation from the overall package, because Spain would have vetoed it if its claims on Gibraltar had not been taken into account. One less annoyance for Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, who had already had quite a bit of trouble with the particular case of Gibraltar when negotiating the UK withdrawal agreement. The tone had already been raised very high between London and Madrid…

Moreover, it was clarified that Spain, in spite of this agreement, does not essentially renounce its main demand: to regain full sovereignty over the Rock, a British possession since 1704 (three years before the union with Scotland). The Treaty of Utrecht of July 1713 (which ended the war of Spanish succession) saw the Spanish monarchy cede ownership of Gibraltar to the Crown of Great Britain, but if the latter wished to resell Gibraltar, Spain would own then a priority right. The United Kingdom also reminds him that it does not in any way give up its rights to “The Rock”.

Confidence tested over four years

But what is the Treaty of Utrecht really worth, concluded at a time when the European powers played at war like others at Monopoly? It is a treaty marked by its historical context with the anti-Semitism and the rejection of the Muslims who were rife at that time. Indeed, in article 10, the British monarchy consents to the request of the King of Spain and undertakes to prohibit “the Jews and the Moors” from settling under any reason whatsoever in Gibraltar. If this clause is lapsed then why not the whole treaty?

Given the tensions between Madrid and London (the land border was closed between 1969 and 1982), it is no exaggeration to say that the pre-agreement concluded on December 31, 2020 between the parties is “historic”, in the words of the leader. Spanish diplomacy, Gonzalez Laya. In four years, the parties will open a new consultation. Perhaps then the Spanish police will be able to carry out checks directly at Gibraltar airport instead of Frontex agents. Confidence will eventually have set in by then.

Before Brexit, Gibraltar was part of the EU with a VAT exemption status. After this agreement, Gibraltar will also benefit from some European programs and, paradoxically, will perhaps be more integrated into the EU than it has been so far.