Spain has reached a deal with the UK to maintain free movement to and from Gibraltar once the UK formally leaves the EU on Friday.
To avoid a hard border, Gibraltar will join the EU's Schengen zone and follow other EU rules, while remaining a British Overseas Territory.
The deal was announced by Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya, just hours before the UK exits the EU.
The Rock voted Remain in 2016 and about 15,000 Spanish workers go there daily.
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Spain and the United Kingdom reached a last-minute preliminary deal on the status of post-Brexit Gibraltar, the Spanish foreign minister said on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteThe agreement came just hours before the UK is set to leave Europe. Without a bilateral deal, the small British territory faced a “hard Brexit,” in the words of Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya.
“People can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Gonzalez Laya in a news conference.
“The practical result of the deal is that the border [separating Spain and Gibraltar] will be torn down,” she said.
She explained that Gibraltar will enter into the Schengen Area, which allows free movement and no border controls within 26 European countries.
Spain, as a European member state, will be in charge of Gibraltar’s border control in the country’s port and airport. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) will also be involved, she explained, without providing details.
The agreement is crucial to the 15,000 residents of Spain who work in Gibraltar, and the Gibraltarians who shop and own property in Spain.
ReplyDeleteUK citizens entering Gibraltar, however, will need to show their passports to EU border guards from Friday onwards.