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Gibraltar will be part of the Schengen area as of January 1, 2021 under an agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said in Madrid on Thursday. The agreement was reached a few hours before the end of the transition period that came into effect after the end of Britain’s membership in the EU on Thursday at midnight.
We have concluded an initial agreement with Great Britain, which will serve as the basis for a future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar.
– said the minister, who added that as part of the agreement, Gibraltar will be part of the EU agreements, so it will continue to be part of the Schengen Convention.
According to the MTI report, the transitional period introduced after the entry into force of Brexit on January 31 will expire at midnight on December 31, so Britain and its overseas territories will not be part of the single market and customs union of the European Union. Since the territory controlled by the British belongs to the Schengen Union, border controls can be carried out at the international airport rather than at the Spanish border. It is not yet clear who will carry out the inspection.
The Spanish foreign minister said that in the absence of a last-minute deal reached Thursday, tens of thousands of Gibraltarians and Spaniards working across the border should have passed through border controls and stamped their passports daily.
Spain claims sovereignty over the port at the entrance to the Mediterranean, which it renounced in favor of Great Britain in 1713 after the War of the Spanish Succession in the Treaty of Utrecht.
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