• The report.Gibraltar before the Brexit countdown: "We are more afraid of Covid"

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  • Politics.González Laya meets for the first time bilaterally and publicly with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar

Gibraltar is in solfa.

The definitive exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union leaves the Rock and its 34,000 inhabitants helpless and the more than 13,000 Spaniards who cross

the gate

daily

to work in the territory of the British colony,

plunged into uncertainty

.

Three days before the end of the year, neither of them know what the beginning of 2021 will bring them. London and Brussels have reached an agreement that defines the conditions of the new relationship between the United Kingdom and its old partners from now on. Union, but the same has not happened with Gibraltar.

Its status is pending a pact between the Spanish and British governments.

A pact that has not yet been produced and that if it is not reached before midnight on the 31st, will turn the Rock into the external border of the EU.

'Brexit' hard for a territory that voted massively against the British disengagement from the European club.

Neither Madrid nor London give details of the obstacles that mark the negotiation, although both, and mainly Spain, claim to be determined to exhaust all possibilities and dialogue in search of a pact before the turn of the year arrives.

But if the agreement does not succeed Gibraltar will be for all intents and purposes a third country to whose citizens none of the benefits that the EU will grant the British will be applied.

Undefined scenario

"There is no

plan B

: Either we reach an agreement or Gibraltar will be the external border of the EU."

With these words, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González-Laya, defines the situation facing La Roca.

The European Union accepted the Spanish requirement according to which any agreement affecting Gibraltar's relationship with the EU must first have the approval of Spain.

Consequently, the scenario that opens

Brexit

for the Rock is still undefined.

González-Laya assures that the Spanish Government wants the pact although it specifies that to reach it the United Kingdom also has to want: "It would be a pity if Gibraltar became the external border of the EU and the only territory in which it would apply. a

hard

Brexit

".

In this way, the minister anticipates the consequences that the lack of agreement may have.

First, cross-border workers will have to move with a special supporting document, but everyone else, both to enter and leave the Rock, will need a visa or passport.

Second, there would be controls, waiting times and queues, which would result in costs for both companies and citizens.

Third, Gibraltarians, as they are not included in the EU-UK agreement, will not have access to Spanish Social Security and the colony would also be outside European airspace.

"Ultimately," explains the minister, "what applies to a third country."

Dover and Gibraltar

Madrid's priority interest is to reach an agreement with London that "facilitates and simplifies mobility as much as possible".

A pact that, according to the Foreign Minister, could even reach the "lifting of

the gate

."

However, this is a complicated scenario given that Gibraltar is not part of

the Schengen area

.

While waiting for the negotiations to lead to a compromise between Madrid and London, Spain sends the message that the lack of it could lead to a situation of difficulty, albeit on a smaller scale, than that experienced in recent days in the port of Dover after the closure of the border into France.

"What has happened in Dover", says González Laya, "is a preview of what a

hard

Brexit

can mean

; what can happen when a new border is not managed in a territory that was not used to it."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Gibraltar

  • European Union

  • Brexit

  • UK

  • Arancha González Laya

Q&A Now what?

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