[ad_1]
Madrid and London were negotiating against the clock today to preserve the free movement of people across the border between Spain and Gibraltar once the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.
Although Britain reached a last-minute exit deal with the European Union on Christmas Eve, it does not cover Gibraltar, the British territory at the southern tip of Spain that has historically been claimed by Madrid.
If no deal is reached, there are serious concerns that a “hard border” will disrupt workers and businesses on both sides of what will be a new border between Britain and the European Union.
“We will seek this agreement until the last moment,” Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said today when asked about the talks, which also involve the government of Gibraltar.
If there is no agreement, Gibraltar will be “the only place where a hard Brexit will be applied”, leading to stricter border controls, he warned.
Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, said on Sunday he remained “optimistic” that a deal would be reached.
Around 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, which represents half of the active population of the territory, mainly focused on the tourism, financial services and online gaming sectors.
These cross-border workers will be exempt from border controls even if no agreement is reached on free movement, provided they have registered their situation in Gibraltar before 1 January.
So far more than 8,500 people have registered, according to the Spanish Foreign Minister.
But this would leave out the roughly 10 million tourists, mainly hikers from Spain, who visit Gibraltar each year, attracted in part by their duty-free shopping.
Along with gambling and offshore banking, tourism is a cornerstone of the economy of Gibraltar, one of the most prosperous regions in Europe that is home to 34,000 people.
Visitors from the European Union to Gibraltar currently only need to show their national identity documents, first to the Spanish border police and then to those from the British territory.
‘Terrible consequences’
However, after January 1 they will have to stamp their passports, which a Gibraltar government source told AFP will cause “queues that will last for hours.”
And the movement of goods between Gibraltar and Spain will be subject to stricter customs procedures from January 1, with unintended economic consequences.
With an area of only 6.8 square kilometers, Gibraltar imports all its food.
In the event that no agreement is reached, Gibraltar has expanded its port facilities to handle more ships and has contracted a ferry service to bring goods from the nearby Spanish port of Algeciras.
Mayors of Spanish cities in the economically depressed region surrounding Gibraltar warned in a joint statement that the lack of an agreement would have “serious economic, political and social consequences” for them.
Gibraltar companies imported around € 421 million worth of goods and services from Spain in 2013, while Spanish cross-border workers earned more than £ 100 million that year, according to a study by the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce.
It would be better for Gibraltar, Spain and Great Britain to keep the border “as free and frictionless as possible,” said John Fletcher, an economist at Britain’s Bournemouth University who prepared the report.
“And that is as important for Spain as it is for Gibraltar, in fact probably more important for Spain,” he told AFP.
While Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 after a military struggle, Madrid has wanted it back in a thorny dispute that for decades has caused friction on the border.
Tensions peaked in 1969 when the regime of dictator Francisco Franco closed the border, which was not fully reopened until 1985.
[ad_2]