There’s an interesting footnote to the tenth anniversary commemoration (noted here a few weeks ago) of the Brexit referendum. While most of the issues that plagued the implementation of Brexit have since been resolved, at least to the extent of fudging an outcome that people have learnt to live with, the issue of Gibraltar has oddly remained outstanding.
Longer-term readers may remember our earlier Gibraltar coverage – see here, here and here. Briefly, the problem is that the territory, which voted overwhelmingly against Brexit, does most of its trade with the European Union, especially Spain, but now finds itself on the wrong side of an external EU border. There are obvious similarities with the situation of Northern Ireland, but also some key differences.
In Northern Ireland there is a substantial constituency for reunion with the south, but there is no such support in Gibraltar for rejoining Spain. The locals are determined to remain British. On the other hand, Britain is a lot further away; while the idea of a customs border in the Irish Sea was a serious problem (since finessed to some extent by the Windsor framework of 2023), it’s harder to get agitated about customs and immigration checks on movement between Britain and Gibraltar.
So the general shape of a deal was reasonably clear, and indeed was announced in January 2021. Gibraltar would stay in a customs union with the EU and would enter the Schengen immigration zone, and customs and immigration controls, which the EU would supervise (and help pay for), would be imposed on air and sea arrivals, including those from Britain.
Four and a half years later, in June of last year, there was another announcement of essentially the same thing: Britain, Spain, the EU and the local Gibraltar government released a joint statement promising free movement of goods and people between Gibraltar and the EU and joint border checks at Gibraltar port and airport. They maintained that this would “promot[e] shared prosperity and close and constructive relations between the Gibraltar and Spanish authorities,” and that “the full legal text” of an agreement for signature and ratification would shortly follow.
It’s taken a full further year from that, and indeed the treaty has still not been ratified by either party. But it has now been signed, and everyone has apparently agreed that that’s enough for implementation, so this week saw scenes of celebration as the border fence and control posts were dismantled.
Why did it take so long? The Brexiters told us, of course, how ponderously slow EU bureaucracy was, and although they were wrong on most things they were right about that. But there were real issues involved as well. Because Spain has never relinquished its claim to Gibraltar, the idea of Spanish officials exercising police powers on its territory is clearly quite traumatic for some locals. And no doubt many British travelers are unhappy with the idea that travel to Gibraltar will now be subject to the same controls as travel to France or Germany.
As the referendum showed, the Gibraltans would have much preferred not to have to make these choices; if Britain had stayed in the EU, closer relations with one would not have had to come at the expense of the other. But given the position they were placed in, integration with Europe seems clearly the way to go. As a worker in the tourism sector (quoted by the BBC) puts it, “I don’t think a fence should separate people from one place and another … This should have been done a long time ago.”
If only the same sentiment could be effective around the world.
The World is Not Enough 