Post-Brexit talks on Gibraltar’s future drag into 2022

LONDON — A deal on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU will not be reached by the end of this year, with talks now set to continue in early 2022.

The British and Spanish foreign ministers, Liz Truss and José Manuel Albares, met Wednesday evening in Madrid to review the state of play of negotiations over Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory but has a land border with Spain.

In statements after the meeting, the two governments said more time was needed but they hoped for agreement in the first quarter of next year. In the meantime, they agreed to extended transitional arrangements preventing a hard-border with Spain — due to expire on December 31 — for as long as talks continue.

Talks aim to produce an EU-U.K. treaty based on a deal struck between Spain and the U.K. at the end of 2020. This agreement, which is not legally binding, allowed Gibraltar to become part of the Schengen passport-free area, with the sponsorship of Madrid. It paved the way for the demolition of the controversial 1.2-kilometer physical barrier separating both territories, by moving border checks to Gibraltar’s port and airport.

Madrid and London had hoped that negotiations between the Commission and the U.K. could start last summer and conclude by the end of the year. But the talks began later than planned since the leaders of the EU’s 27 member countries only gave their approval to the Commission’s draft mandate in October. Since then, negotiators have held four rounds of talks.

Spain’s foreign ministry said Albares and Truss agreed that negotiations are “very productive” but had been slowed by the “complexity of the issues involved” — including free movement of people, patrolling the border, trade in goods, state aid, environmental rules and the coordination of Spain’s and Gibraltar’s social security systems. The COVID-19 pandemic also played a part.

The U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office described the talks as “constructive,” adding that “the U.K. maintained its position on the sovereignty of Gibraltar.”

Truss’s trip to Madrid was her first bilateral visit to an EU country in her first 100 days in office. The discussion with Albares also covered undocumented migration, preparations for the NATO summit in Madrid in June, and bilateral collaboration on energy and technology.

* This article was originally published here