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LONDON — Spain is able to shut the border with Gibraltar on December 31 if the British authorities doesn’t conform to continued free motion of individuals, the Spanish international minister mentioned.
Although the U.Okay. and the EU have concluded a future relationship settlement, the way forward for Gibraltar is but to be settled in parallel negotiations between London, Madrid and the Rock.
On Tuesday, the Spanish cupboard is ready to approve measures permitting Gibraltarians to profit from entry to its universities and to have their skilled {qualifications} acknowledged. But probably the most essential difficulty —whether or not individuals will be capable to proceed to cross the border easily and with out checks as soon as the Brexit transition interval ends in three days’ time — has not been agreed but.
The Spanish authorities is pushing for Gibraltar to hitch the passport-free Schengen zone, as first reported by POLITICO. The U.Okay. has accepted the concept of some type of relationship between Gibraltar and Schengen, in line with an official conversant in the talks, however is anxious a couple of potential lack of sovereignty in consequence.
Speaking at a press convention Monday night, Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya warned that if there is no such thing as a settlement with London, Gibraltar shall be “the only place where a hard Brexit is applied.”
“We know obviously that there is a big disagreement between Spain and the United Kingdom when it comes to sovereignty; we also know that both parts have inalienable claims,” she mentioned, including that Spain thinks it’s “perfectly possible” to unravel the free motion query “without giving up on our sovereignty claims.”
There are two points proving tough for London to simply accept: the truth that these touring from the U.Okay. to Gibraltar must undergo a Schengen management submit, and how one can patrol the border.
Spain has accepted that for a transitional interval, officers from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) would patrol the airport and seaport entry factors in Gibraltar, but it surely desires Spanish cops to take over that function finally — a purple line for Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. Madrid is now insisting that the Frontex officers ought to report again to Spanish authorities, which Gibraltar objects to.
If there is no such thing as a deal, González Laya mentioned Gibraltar would grow to be “the external border of the European Union” and will expertise “queues similar to those we’ve seen in Dover” — pointing to the lengthy traces of lorries close to the Port of Dover after France shut down its border for freight and journey.
In that situation, Gibraltar would even be unnoticed of the EU’s airspace, and other people crossing into Spain must have their passport stamped on the border, with the exemption of the 15,000 frontier employees who’ve registered in a particular database and would solely want to indicate an ID doc.
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