EU ups the pressure with team sent to Gibraltar days after Brexit warning

Gibraltar: ‘No future role for ECJ’ says Boris Johnson

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Negotiations are underway between Britain and the EU on trade and mobility. The Brexit trade agreement signed at the close of 2020 does not apply to the Rock and negotiators are now working towards formalising a proper agreement.

A technical delegation of the European Commission will visit Gibraltar on January 18 and 19, according to website Europa Sur.

It is seeking to procure details about the current situation regarding customs and border controls at the Rock’s border.

A draft deal agreed by Spain and the UK on New Year’s Eve in 2020 said free movement of people to and from Gibraltar would continue while a full agreement was being negotiated.

Nearly 10,000 Spaniards cross the border between Spain and the Rock – known as “La Verja”, that is, “The Fence” – every day for work, according to El País, illustrating the significant of border disputes in the region.

The EU sparked fury when it suggested Spanish border authorities would be stationed at Gibraltar.

Gibraltan First Minister Fabián Picardo maintained that, whatever the outcome of ongoing talks, the Rock would always be considered “exclusively British”.

Disagreement is also bound to flow from Gibraltar’s insistence that it will not be a part of the EU’s Customs Union.

Sir Joe Bossano, Minister for Economic Development, told GBC news that the Rock was not a member of the Union before Brexit and it will not be after it.

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He said: “We were very clear [when we joined the EU] that being part of the Customs Union was not in our interest because we do not grow anything and we do not manufacture anything.

“So we have got nothing to protect.

“The Customs Union is a protective market. It is a free market, but it is a protective market because it stops things coming in.”

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He added that Gibraltar’s position was centred on the Rock being a territory of “free traders”.

Sir Joe said: “We buy from the world and therefore we need to remain [as free traders]”.

Some have raised concerns that lengthy talks between UK and EU negotiators over the post-Brexit situation in Northern Ireland could distract away from matters relating to Gibraltar.

But Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares insisted late last year that these talks should in no way impact the outcome for the Rock.

He said: “They are two different issues that have absolutely nothing to do with each other; what’s more, they are two different negotiations.”

Additional reporting by Maria Ortega.

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