T he UK, and above all the Gibraltarians, are extremely concerned that the negotiations between London and Brussels to determine the status of the Rock after Brexit have stalled as a result of the early general elections in Spain.
British and Gibraltarians know that Pedro Sánchez’s government cannot accept any agreement being reached just days before the elections. The opposition would cry foul, because any agreement signed by the European Commission would already be impossible for a new government to reverse if the PP reaches La Moncloa. Climbing Rope 3mm
Sánchez had his sights set on achieving a photo-op in the middle of the Spanish EU presidency that would present him as the great post-Brexit deal-maker for Gibraltar, but the poor results of the municipal and regional elections forced him to bring forward the general elections. Fabian Picardo, the British colony’s chief minister, is undoubtedly among the most disgruntled by this decision, because he sees the horizon of a PP victory plagued by the storm clouds of a hard Brexit, something that the people of Gibraltar have never wanted. Their massive vote against the UK’s exit from the EU made it clear that they knew what was coming.
Picardo has probably realised too late that it was too pretentious to want to win by a landslide. He did not reckon that the game could end prematurely, as it has. The Spanish government was prepared to make many concessions for the sake of shared prosperity in the Campo de Gibraltar, but the Gibraltarians wanted more, and London’s plans meant that it would not give the slightest concession on what really matters to them above the llanitos, which is the maintenance of the status quo of its naval base on the Rock, to which more units are arriving every day, as if to underline that interest.
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, whom the British blame for the failure to reach an understanding, has said on several occasions after the various meetings between the Brussels and London delegations that the ball was in the UK’s court. Now, after the impossibility of making progress, the effective British diplomatic machinery has been set in motion to blame Spain for the lack of agreement.
The British government, through the mouth of its governor on the Rock, David Steel, pointed out, via the Times, that the failure is due to Spain’s request for a regulatory framework on the management of the airport that involves Spanish jurisdiction, and that this is something that Gibraltar can tolerate. Picardo has since expanded on this idea.
Nor do the British and Gibraltarians accept that at the external borders of the port and airport there should be more than an indeterminate supervision by Spanish police over the work that, according to them, would be carried out by Frontex, the European border agency. This is something that Spain cannot accept because it is the state responsible for controlling the borders of the Schengen area.
The airport issue is not the only one that has yet to be agreed. Along with external border control, issues such as the colony’s tax harmonisation with Spain, the transposition of EU environmental regulations to Gibraltar and the equalisation of the pensions of Spanish workers in Gibraltar with those of Gibraltarians remain to be determined. In addition, London has not given Madrid any satisfactory response to its demands, not just for joint control of the naval base, but at least to know who enters and who leaves it, because once the fence has been pulled down, it would be impossible to control anything.
Picardo’s latest article in the Financial Times clearly reveals that his government is already thinking that things could become much more difficult after the general elections in Spain, if the PP wins. And with the thought that he too will have to submit to the scrutiny of the ballot box before the end of the year, he toughens his language, stating that “if anyone in any political party on the left, right or centre in Spain thinks they are going to subject the people of Gibraltar to any concessions or compromises on sovereignty while I am chief minister, they are wrong”.
Faced with the possibility of a hard Brexit, Picardo warns that he may turn to non-EU workers, given the difficulties that there will be for the thousands of Spaniards who work on the Rock on a daily basis to cross the border.
On a day-to-day basis, many of the ‘llanitos’ are dreading the possibility of the return of long queues to enjoy their homes on Spanish soil. They experienced this for some time when José Manuel García-Margallo was at the helm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and fear that now -especially if elements of Vox enter a future PP government- a similar situation could arise.
The British and Gibraltarians, for whom the Spanish government has been making life easier with successive extensions to not apply EU measures while waiting for an agreement to be reached between the European Commission and the United Kingdom, now perceive that perhaps, in order to achieve one hundred percent of their demands, they pushed things too far.
Diplomat Eduardo Jorge Silva has presented the Copies of his Letters of Credence as the new Ambassador of Cape Verde to Spain.
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