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Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, has admitted that the Rock’s long awaited post-Brexit deal could mean “introducing parts of the European rules that we never belonged to when we were members of the EU but not in Schengen or the Single Market.”
In his New Year’s address, which you can find the full transcript of here, Picardo stated that treaty negotiations were “very, very close to a deal” and that finally finishing them was one of his main challenges for 2025. However, the Chief Minister also admitted that some aspects of the negotiations are of such “great technical complexity” that “there can be derivatives of sovereignty in some details.”
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The Spanish press is reporting this admission as the ‘first time’ Picardo has admitted potential sovereignty implications, and framing it as a departure or backtrack from previous, more unequivocal pledges on sovereignty.
Gibraltar’s seemingly never-ending Brexit treaty negotiations have dragged on since 2016. Both the Spanish and British teams have made positive noises about a deal over the years, and Gibraltarians have for several years been assured that a deal is close without it ever coming to fruition.
Yet the Rock now enters 2025, the ninth year since the referendum and fifth since the UK formally left the EU at the end of 2020, still stuck in legal limbo. Locals, or Llanitos as they’re known, voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU by a margin of 96 percent.
In his New Year address to Gibraltarians last year, Picardo said that the final stages of any negotiations require “patience and stoic calm” yet in material terms nothing about the situation has not changed since then.
The British government, whether under the former Conservative government or current Labour government, have talked up the prospect of improving wider UK-EU relations and closing treaty negotiations. However any deal is dependent on four way negotiations between Spain, the UK, the EU, and Gibraltar.
It was hoped that the new government would energise treaty talks but little has come from Labour’s election victory last summer.
READ ALSO: ‘Starting now’ – New UK govt wastes no time in Gibraltar post-Brexit talks with Spain
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The deadlock has left thousands of Gibraltarians shrouded in uncertainty. “I am as impatient as you are for a positive resolution,” Picardo said. “I know how urgent the promised fluidity is for some, not least for the Campo’s resident cross frontier workers.”
However, Gibraltar’s deputy Chief Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, Joseph García, has warned that in 2025 there will be “deep changes” in the way the overseas territory will interact with Spain and the EU in particular, regardless of whether an agreement is finally reached.
“The truth,” García added, is that “in some areas, Spain has done little to build confidence and trust.”
As The Local has reported extensively in recent years, the border and customs arrangements on La Línea have essentially been fudged ever since Brexit, with Spanish police seemingly choosing when and how to implement checks and causing hours-long backlogs on the border and forcing travellers to find creative ways to bypass rules and cross into Spain.
The Gibraltar government has outlined plans for a ‘no deal’ scenario including tight border checks and new rules on the movement of goods and waste disposal. In his address, Picardo alluded to this possibility: “However hard, No Deal would be better for you and for me than a deal that compromises our fundamentals.”
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For many in Gibraltar, these fundamentals include total British sovereignty of the Rock and the complete rejection of Spanish police on British soil. The airport and border checks by land have also proven to be sticking points in negotiations.
Talks have also reportedly become more tense following news that property developers in Gibraltar will continue expanding into territory that Spain claims are part of Spanish waters.
Gibraltar was ceded to the British in 1713 as part of the Treaty of Utrecht, something Spain claims did not include the surrounding waters.
Madrid has long claimed sovereignty of Gibraltar. Former correspondent for The Times, Tunku Varadarajan, wrote a few years ago for the Hoover Institution that Spain essentially views Gibraltar as existing in “a state of suspended Spanishness.”
IN DEPTH: Should Gibraltar be British or Spanish?