The UK and the EU are within “kissing distance” of a post-Brexit deal to guarantee free movement over the border between Gibraltar and Spain, Gibraltar’s chief minister has said.
After a meeting between the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, agreement was reached on issues that have dogged negotiations for the past five years.
It includes an outline pact on having an EU presence at the airport in Gibraltar to ensure the regulation of people and goods coming into the EU.
Lord Cameron left Brussels after the meeting without speaking to reporters, but Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, and Albares said the meeting had been positive and constructive.
Asked how close they were to a treaty, Picardo said: “We are very, very, very close. In English we say within spitting distance but actually it is nice to say we are within kissing distance.”
He said those in the room on Friday had “reached the limit” of what they could do in Brussels, but on a scale of one to 100 they were at “90 or 95”, leaving him “very optimistic”.
A major sticking point has been who controls Gibraltar’s airport, which under the proposed free movement deal would be an external border of the EU. The UK and Gibraltar have resisted Spain’s insistence that Spanish border officials be based at the airport, which is also home to an RAF base.
All sides are eager to clinch a deal before the EU parliamentary elections in June. It would end a tortuous journey begun by the Brexit referendum in 2016, which created a potential hard border with customs and passport checks between Gibraltar and Spain.
A joint statement from the European Commission, Spain, the UK and Gibraltar said: “Discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with significant progress achieved. General political lines have been agreed, including on airport, goods and mobility. Negotiations will continue over the coming weeks to conclude the UK-EU agreement.”
With 15,000 commuters a day crossing the border, there are some parallels with Ireland, which secured continuing free movement with Northern Ireland as part of the Windsor framework secured in March 2023.
However, the EU and Spain were worried that in Gibraltar’s case, free movement would give travellers on “the rock” free movement into the wider continental Europe.
Spain is part of the Schengen area, which allows people to travel across borders involving 29 countries without passport controls.
In the Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain’s southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants.
