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Brussels – Spain, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission (EC) achieved “significant progress” in negotiations concerning the situation of Gibraltar after Brexit at a meeting held in Brussels this Thursday, where they are increasingly close to a deal that Brussels hopes will be “good”.
The discussions this Thursday took place in a constructive atmosphere, with significant progress and additional areas of agreement. All parties are confident that the deal is getting closer and will work closely and quickly on the remaining areas towards a comprehensive agreement between the EU and the UK,” said Madrid, London, Brussels, and Gibraltar in a joint statement.
The statement was published following the meeting held today in Brussels by the Foreign Ministers of Spain, José Manuel Albares, and the United Kingdom, David Cameron, along with the Vice President of the EC Maros Sefcovic and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo.
The statement noted that the meeting reaffirmed the “shared commitment” of the parties “to conclude an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom to provide confidence, legal certainty, and stability to the lives and livelihoods of people throughout the region, protecting and enhancing the economy, trade, mobility, the environment, and social welfare, while safeguarding the legal positions of all parties.”
“Everyone agreed to remain in close and constant contact,” the statement noted.
At a press conference, EC Vice President Sefcovic refrained from detailing the areas of disagreement that still prevent the deal and pointed out that the “significant advancements” have been made in the realms of the economy, trade, mobility, the environment, and social welfare.
“We have focused on progresses and solutions, not on the conflict points. We are moving forward on all issues, it is a very political issue but also extremely technical in some areas,” he said.
“We would like to reach an agreement as soon as possible, but we also know that what matters is having a good agreement,” added the Slovak, who preferred not to talk about “concrete dates” for future meetings or make “predictions”.
The Spanish Minister, José Manuel Albares, stated that Spain, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission expressed in today’s meeting a “firm commitment” to achieve an agreement on Gibraltar.
“It has become clear that we have all expressed our firm commitment to the final objective, which is to reach that agreement for a shared prosperity area with Gibraltar, Campo de Gibraltar, and to create a new relationship based on trust and prosperity,” he told the media after the meeting.
Like Sefcovic, he did not want to delve into the details of the negotiation, but assured that “there is no issue on which any of the parties reject, exclude, or have a frontal opposition to reaching an agreement”.
“In some aspects, we still need further alignment of technical positions on this,” he acknowledged, and emphasized that it is “simply a matter of aligning positions on the final points”.
He added that no “possible timeframe” has been established to conclude the agreement on Gibraltar, but he said that “tomorrow the work will continue.”
“Significant agreements were already made on April 12, today new agreements have been made and we expect to conclude soon,” he expressed, emphasizing that the perspective “is not that there is no agreement, but quite the opposite, that there is an agreement”.
The first meeting with the same format of today was held on April 12 in Brussels, during which the Commission, the United Kingdom, and Spain were able to agree on the “general political lines” on Gibraltar after Brexit in areas such as the airport of the Rock or mobility.
The situation of Gibraltar was left out of the agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the three parties involved still maintain negotiations, eight years after the referendum on Brexit.
The use of the airport and customs control have focused the conversations of the negotiators for months.
The agreement on the Rock is key for the more than 32,000 Gibraltarians, the more than 270,000 residents of the Spanish region of Campo de Gibraltar, the 15,000 workers who cross the border fence daily, and the network of companies that interact on both sides of the customs. (May 16)