Spain warns UK over unfinished EU deal on Gibraltar after Brexit

Spain’s foreign affairs minister, José Manuel Albares, said on Monday in London this week that resetting Britain’s relationship with the EU after Brexit depends on reaching an agreement on Gibraltar.

Albares was speaking a week before a summit between London and Brussels, aimed at reaching a new way of working together.

He spoke to BBC Newsnight programme while he was in London to attend a meeting with other European counterparts, the so-called G5+, in which they discussed Ukraine.

“The relationship between the UK and the EU is a comprehensive relationship, a global relationship, not an à la carte relationship,” the minister said. Therefore, “there are many things to talk about, including Gibraltar,” he warned. Asked if he considered the question of the Rock to be resolved, Albares replied that “it has not yet been resolved, there is no agreement”.

The minister was referring to the agreement that Brussels and London have been negotiating since autumn 2021 which will set out the EU’s relationship with Gibraltar, especially revolving around the border and possible free movement, now that the UK is no longer in the union.

“It is very clear that it is part of the Withdrawal Agreement,” he said, referring to the exit pact sealed by Britain. “We have to resolve the Gibraltar issue in order to have a full EU-UK relationship,” he said.

Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, made a similar statement in reaction to Albares’ words. “The detail of Gibraltar’s future relationship with the EU is not yet resolved,” he told the Gibraltar Chronicle in statements reported by Europa Press.

“We are continuing our work, with our colleagues in the UK, to resolve all the issues with our counterparts in the EU as quickly as we can, without compromising on our fundamental issues,” he explained, in clear reference to the question of sovereignty, given the dispute between London and Madrid.

Just hours earlier, the chief minister had responded to rumours of an imminent agreement on Gibraltar, denying it would be announced on Friday this week, before the summit on Monday that will bring the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, together with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, António Costa.

Monday’s meeting is not expected to address the Gibraltar issue, according to what has been reported so far. European Commission sources have told Europa Press that negotiations are continuing on the agreement on Gibraltar, while reiterating Brussels’ determination to preserve “the legal positions of all parties and the interests of the region as a whole”.

Last week, Madrid hosted a meeting attended by representatives of the European Commission and the British government, without details emerging as to whether any progress was made in a negotiation that has not had a political meeting at the highest level since last September.

Just a few days ago, the EU negotiator with the United Kingdom, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic, reassured the European Parliament that the talks “are moving in a positive direction” and affirmed that work was continuing “at the highest level”. On the same day, Albares had expressed a similar view, saying that in recent months there had been “ significant progress”. Neither went into detail.