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Europa Press
Madrid
Wednesday, 7 May 2025, 13:54
Representatives of the European Commission and the British government are meeting this Wednesday in Madrid to continue negotiating the status of Gibraltar with respect to the EU, following Brexit. Spain's secretary of state for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, is taking part in the talks, as is Gibraltar's chief minister, Fabian Picardo.
The meeting, as Spanish foreign ministry sources confirmed to Europa Press, is also being attended by the British minister of state for Europe, Stephen Doughty, and takes place just two weeks before the summit with which the European Union and the United Kingdom want to mark the “resetting” of relations five years after Brexit.
On Monday, the European Union's negotiator with the United Kingdom, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic, assured the European Parliament that the talks "are moving in a positive direction" and said that work was continuing "at the highest level", without giving details of progress or next steps.
Also on Monday, Spain's minister of foreign affairs, European Union and cooperation, José Manuel Albares, said in an appearance in the Senate that in recent months there has been "substantial progress", although he avoided specifying the stumbling blocks that are still pending.
Despite the fact that there have been no further rounds of talks since September last year, Sefcovic took up the issue last week with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whom he asked to "redouble efforts to resolve the latest problems and move the negotiations forward".
"We are making good progress thanks to the intense work of our teams," the commissioner said in a message on social media, without giving further details of the pending obstacles.
In his presentation to MEPs, Sefcovic insisted on the "positive cooperation" between London and Brussels to find a solution to the status of Gibraltar, in limbo since the UK left the EU; while ensuring that "reflects" the new positive atmosphere of partnership in bilateral relations.
Until now, Brussels has avoided going into details of what are the pending issues in the framework they are negotiating for Gibraltar. Neither has it wanted to set specific deadlines, pointing out other areas of mutual interest where the EU sees clear room for agreement at the 19 May summit, especially in security and defence in the face of geopolitical tension due to the Russian war in Ukraine and the distancing of the United States.
Since the UK's divorce from the EU, about twenty rounds of negotiations over Gibraltar have taken place, with three at the highest political level last year (in April, May and September), with the presence of Sefcovic, the heads of the British and Spanish diplomacy and the chief minister of the Rock, Fabian Picardo. However, so far this year there have been no further contacts in this format.
"The [Gibraltar] government remains firmly committed to the conclusion of a treaty which is safe, secure and beneficial for Gibraltar. This contact between the different parties at all levels is expected to continue going forward," said the government of Gibraltar in a statement on Wednesday.
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