A post-Brexit treaty permitting free movement between the British enclave of Gibraltar and Spain is set to be signed next month and come into force in April, officials said on Thursday.
The agreement, negotiated between Britain and the EU, seeks to remove physical barriers and checks on people and goods moving between Spain and the territory.
The deal was reached last June after years of difficult negotiations, following tensions between London and Brussels in the aftermath of the UK’s 2016 Brexit vote and subsequent departure from the European Union.
A more than 1,000-page draft copy of the agreement was published Thursday by both the UK and the Gibraltar authorities.
The agreement still needs to be signed, ratified and implemented.
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The UK expects its signing to take place next month, Stephen Doughty, a foreign office minister, told parliament.
“We’re committed to laying forward the finalised text after signature of the treaty, which we expect to take place next month,” he added.
Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the territory’s local parliament Thursday that the aim was for “provisional application by the 10th of April”.
This would coincide with the full rollout of the EU’s new digital border-control Entry/Exit System (EES) for non-EU nationals entering or leaving the Schengen Area.
Gibraltar has a population of around 34,000, with approximately 15,000 people — more than half of its workforce — crossing the border daily, according to the territory’s authorities.
Two-thirds of those are Spanish.
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“Without an agreement, the EU’s Entry/Exit system would see a hard border enforced, with mandatory passport checks and endless queues,” the UK’s foreign office said in a statement.
“Instead, the new agreement creates a fluid border between Gibraltar and Spain, and a tailored customs model that will eliminate burdensome goods checks at the land border.”
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‘Not joining Schengen’
At Gibraltar airport, however, arrivals will undergo dual controls carried out by both Gibraltarian and Spanish officials, including for passengers arriving from the UK.
“Gibraltar is not joining Schengen,” Doughty insisted, responding to concerns from opposition Conservative MPs.
“Immigration, policing and justice remain the responsibility of its own authorities,” he noted.
“British sovereignty over Gibraltar, including British Gibraltar territorial waters, is fully upheld and explicitly protected.”
Spain’s government welcomed the announcement, calling the publication of the agreement “a decisive step”.
London and Madrid have disputed control of Gibraltar since the tiny territory was ceded to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.
When the UK left the EU in 2020, the status of the historically important military base there was unresolved.
Madrid and London reached a last-minute provisional deal to preserve freedom of movement at the border, but a definitive agreement had since remained elusive.
