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Among the 1246 pages of the Mail Agreement Brexi between the European Union and Great Britain only one line is dedicated to the enclave of Gibraltar. “This Agreement”, the final provisions read, “will not apply to Gibraltar and will have no effect in that territory.”
The promontory where, according to mythology, Ercole, son of Zeus, contemplated the columns that marked the extreme limit of the known lands, he is treated in the same way as other British overseas territories, such as Bermuda, Malvinas, Anguilla or Cayman Islands.
Gibraltar actually shares with some islets, mostly lost in the middle of the oceans, the state of British overseas territories; However, it presents very different conditions, it is geographically part of the SpainFeel and live the pulse of Europe, see 12,000 people every day who cross the borders from Andalusian towns to work in the neighborhood. It was no coincidence that, in the 2016 referendum on Brexit, the 30,000 residents of the promontory expressed themselves en masse (more than 95%) for “staying.”
Thus, as of January 1, the line of 15 kilometers that marks this strip of land will be the external border of the European Union, a third country with the obligation to display the passport to access it. However, some precautions had been taken in time: the Gibraltar executive, based on an agreement with Spain based on reciprocal conditions, will facilitate cross-border transfers so as not to compromise their rights. In the last weeks more than 5000 cross border Andalusians enrolled in frontierworkers.egov.gi, a local government platform operational since December 1.
Fabián Picardo, Prime Minister of the Executive who has jurisdiction over this overseas fortress, hopes that a strong Britain can soon close a treaty with the EU and Spain. specific in the enclave. It will be an opportunity to review the state of this strip of just six square kilometers. de facto is a tax haven able to obtain offshore financing and money laundering. An ideal base for 55,000 companies that have established their tax residence here, in an isthmus without currency controls, with light bureaucracy and above all tax facilitated. Privileges generating an attractive per capita income of £ 38,000 per year; in the nearby region of Andalusia the average income is still barely 18 thousand euros.
But the current uncertainty is not a good ally for the economy. Trying to take advantage of the competition that comes from other enclaves, as if the only concrete possibility of development, or of sustenance, of territories with peculiar status, suspended between natural characteristics of geography and political legacies, were to create systems. parallel, at the limit of legality.
Is now Ceuta, Spanish enclave – together with Melilla – in the land of the Maghreb, which aims to attract outgoing investments from Gibraltar. This is expressly provided for by a Plan commissioned for about 80 thousand euros from an international consultancy by the administration of the autonomous city of the African coast. An alternative to the UK Rock for logistics, financial and insurance services and for industry to play online. Of course, the entire program is based on forecasts that could present surprises: if free trade between Gibraltar and the EU followed the criteria established by the Framework Agreement desired by the Union and Boris johnson, then the project to create an alternative economic center would deflate even before its launch.
It will be to avoid any ambition of Ceuta and Melilla that the Agreement establishes a relationship direct between Great Britain and the two autonomous enclaves. The agreement establishes that the products of Ceuta and Melilla must carry certificates of origin from the Spanish outposts in North Africa. As if he wanted to better control business and activities.
In the coming months more will be known about the fate of La Rocca, whether for example it will be integrated, as Prime Minister Picardo fears, into the treaty of Schengen, thus generating a grotesque paradox, in which the British had to show their passport to enter their overseas land while the Spanish could freely access it. Picardo said that the ticking of the clock resounds loudly against the backdrop of the agreement on the Campo de Gibraltar. What for now remains in legal limbo: after all, it was beyond those ‘Pillars of Hercules’ that Dante placed Purgatory.
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