Britain and Spain are on the brink of signing a critical agreement over the future of Gibraltar, according to sources close to the negotiations.
Talks stalled last year after Spain insisted the UK surrender control of Gibraltar’s airport, which is on the site of an RAF base. However, post-Brexit negotiations were revived in December and last week Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary, met José Manuel Albares, his Spanish counterpart.
The two sides are understood to have made progress towards overcoming the UK’s objections to a Spanish proposal for Madrid to control the airport.
Sources in Brussels said that the negotiations were at a “tipping point” and that those involved hope to close in on a deal over the next seven days. “The two sides have agreed that they are optimistic about a solution to the issue,” a Gibraltar government source said. However, Whitehall sources in the UK have played down the prospect of an imminent deal.
Progress is expected to be fleshed out at a further meeting between Cameron and Albares this week. It is not yet clear what the deal means for the future of Gibraltar’s airport and its status as an RAF base.
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Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president leading the Gibraltar negotiation, said last week: “We are entering into a sensitive phase of the negotiations.”
Before the most recent round of negotiations, Albares had insisted that Madrid’s proposed control of the airport was essential to an agreement.
Spain is particularly sensitive about sovereignty of the airport, which it claims Britain seized illegally when Madrid allowed it to build a hospital on the isthmus during a yellow fever outbreak in 1815.
He tied the proposal to the possibility of the airport being used in future by flights from Spain and the EU. British officials had ruled this out, saying it breached the basis of the talks, arguing that the negotiations, which have worn on since 2020, were embarked upon by both sides with the understanding that matters of sovereignty would not be discussed.
A senior British official declined to comment on the details of agreement, adding “if a deal is imminent, I can assure you that there would not be a deal if it wasn’t to be in the best interests of Gibraltar”.
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The deal has already met opposition from Conservative hardliners, such as Sir William Cash, chairman of the European scrutiny committee.
Last month he raised concerns that an agreement would endanger British sovereignty of Gibraltar.
“I was disturbed to hear … that what appears to have been agreed in principle between the UK and the EU with regard to Gibraltar would include EU Schengen border checks being performed in Gibraltar, Gibraltar aligning with EU rules to ensure a so-called level playing field, they say, and joint UK-Spanish management of Gibraltar’s airport and, therefore, defence issues,” he said.
He added: “If so, what the government has agreed … crosses its own negotiating red lines as first set out to my committee in 2021. It risks setting a dangerous precedent for the UK’s overseas territories and crown dependencies, allowing a foreign power to set the rules of our engagement and diminishing the constitutionally entrusted role which the UK plays.”
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In December, Albares repeated a threat to the UK if it did not cede to its demands over the airport, saying it was “up to the United Kingdom to decide whether it wants this or the simple application of European legislation,” referring to leaving Gibraltar isolated outside of the Schengen zone.
Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s chief minister, who has played a key role in the negotiations, has said that an agreement “can create prosperity for Gibraltar and the [Spanish] area around us. We are committed to delivering a great agreement but in a way that requires neither Spain nor Gibraltar to compromise on fundamentals.”
Spanish officials have claimed the UK was “quibbling” over small details of the deal, referring to its objections over Madrid’s attempt to control the airport, describing the British attitude as “penny-wise and pound-foolish”.
Spain, however, is expected to sell the deal to its citizens as a watering-down of British sovereignty that has strengthened its claims over the territory in the long term, as well as improving the economic prospects of the impoverished area on the Spanish side of Gibraltar’s border.
Conservative Spanish governments have attempted to negotiate with Britain to secure joint sovereignty of the territory. The issue is even more sensitive as Gibraltar’s status as a strategic military base is once again in focus.
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Since Brexit Spain has allowed a relatively fluid movement of people across the land border. Freedom of movement is essential to Gibraltar because the territory, which has a population of about 32,000, is dependent on about 15,000 workers crossing the border every day from Spain, who, for example, provide half of its health service staff. They also work in Gibraltar’s crucial online gaming and insurance businesses, as well as tourism.
A UK government spokesman said: “Gibraltar is an important part of the UK family, and we will not agree to anything that compromises its sovereignty.
“The foreign secretary is expected to discuss the most complex issues in the negotiations later this week. While a final agreement is not imminent, the meeting will provide a platform to make further progress.”
