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BREXIT: Talks to avoid Spain-Gibraltar ‘hard border’ go down to wire

Madrid and London were Tuesday negotiating against the clock to preserve the free movement of people across the border between Spain and Gibraltar once the Brexit transition period ends on December 31st.

BREXIT: Talks to avoid Spain-Gibraltar 'hard border' go down to wire
Photos: AFP

Although Britain reached a last-minute exit deal with the European Union on Christmas Eve, it does not cover Gibraltar, a tiny British territory on Spain's southern tip which is historically claimed by Madrid.

If no agreement is reached, there are serious concerns that a “hard border” would cause disruption for the workers and businesses on both sides of what will be a new border between Britain and the European Union.

“We will seek this agreement until the last minute,” Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said Tuesday when asked about the talks, which also involve the Gibraltar government.

If there is no deal, Gibraltar will be “the only place where a hard Brexit is applied”, which would lead to tighter border controls, she warned.   

Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo (pictured below) said Sunday he remained “optimistic” that an agreement will be reached.

Around 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, accounting for half of the territory's workforce centred mainly on the tourism, financial services and online gambling sectors.   

These cross-border workers will be exempt from border controls even if no agreement on free movement is reached as long as they have registered their status with Gibraltar by January 1st.

Over 8,500 have so far signed up, according to the Spanish foreign minister.    

But this would leave out the roughly 10 million tourists, mainly day-trippers from Spain, who visit Gibraltar each year, drawn in part by its duty-free shopping.

Along with gambling and offshore banking, tourism is a cornerstone of the economy for Gibraltar, one of the most prosperous regions in Europe which is home to 34,000 people.

Visitors from the European Union to Gibraltar currently need only to show their national identity documents, first to Spanish border police and then to those in the British territory.

'Dire consequences'

But after January 1st they will have to have their passports stamped, which a Gibraltar government source told AFP will cause “queues lasting hours”.   

And the movement of goods between Gibraltar and Spain will be subject to tighter customs procedures from January 1, with unwanted economic consequences.   

With a land area of just 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 square miles), Gibraltar imports all of its food.   

In the event that no deal is reached, Gibraltar has extended its port facilities to be able to handle more ships and has contracted a ferry service to bring goods from the nearby Spanish port of Algeciras.

Mayors of Spanish cities in the economically depressed region that surrounds Gibraltar warned in a joint statement that a lack of an agreement would have “dire economic, political and social consequences” for them.

Gibraltar businesses imported around 381 million British  pounds (421 million euros, $515 million) in goods and services from Spain in 2013, while Spanish cross-border workers earned over 100 million pounds that year, according to a Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce study.   

It would be best for Gibraltar, Spain and Britain to keep the border “as free and frictionless as possible,” said John Fletcher, an economist at Britain's Bournemouth University who prepared the report.

“And that is as important for Spain as for Gibraltar, in fact probably more important for Spain,” he told AFP.

While Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 following a military struggle, Madrid has long wanted it back in a thorny dispute that has for decades caused friction on the frontier.   

Tensions peaked in 1969 when the regime of dictator Francisco Franco closed the border, which did not fully reopen until 1985.

By AFP's Alvaro Villalobos

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GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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