a Few voices in the European Union know the peculiar lace of Gibraltar in the family community. Fewer still are those that understand what is the supposed affront that the agreement of the Brexit raises to Spain in their relationship with the british colony. The complexity of the conflict and the sudden appearance of this pitfall as the last stone in the path of Brexit have on the mood in Brussels. Because the article of the treaty that leads to Spain to raise an unprecedented veto on this key issue for the EU was not drafted thinking in Gibraltar, but may have unforeseen consequences to the nexus future with the Rock. In spite of everything, in Brussels there is a suspicion that at least a part of the tenacity of the Spanish on this issue responds to reasons of internal politics.
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What has happened in this failed diplomatic maneuver is that a text entered at the last minute to ensure the support of Theresa May at the agreement of withdrawal from the EU has infuriated Spain, one of the countries most pro-european of the community club. A quick read of that article 184 rule out any conflict. But to pass the text through the sieve of the legal profession of the State, a body that defends the interests of the State, and by the advice of international legal, dependent of the Ministry of Foreign affairs, is detected, an insurmountable obstacle, according to the interpretation of the Executive of Pedro Sanchez.
The article, which establishes a link between the disengagement agreement of britain and the future relationship that should agree on the EU and the Uk, raises two problems for Spain. In the first place, the words included in the text of both parties to negotiate “fully complied with the respective legal orders”. This expression allows the United Kingdom to include their colony in the umbrella of the article, where the negotiating guidelines of this entire process have enshrined the right of veto that can have Spain on any future agreement between London and Brussels and its translation to Gibraltar. Spain sees there a risk of automatism which goes against the spirit of what we agreed on Twenty-seven at the start of the negotiation. Because after years of suffering a tax competition unfair of the Rock, considered a tax haven, the Executive wants to build a more balanced relationship with the occasion of their departure from the shelter of the EU.
In the second place, the Government is concerned that the article inserted in a treaty, whose territorial scope does include expressly to Gibraltar Betpark (article 3 of the agreement (withdrawal). To be part of the same text, the law of the State fears that London’s use in the future that argument as a shortcut to apply to your cologne a few advantages that Spain had the right of veto.
The worries of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez does not end there. The Spanish diplomacy has also bothered to see that in the draft political declaration there is no express mention that none of this will apply to Gibraltar without the consent of Spain.
written Guarantees
The european institutions, they argue that the fit of last-minute, designed to accommodate the demands of May in a covenant by which the neck politician in your country, has nothing to do with Gibraltar. This is what has been expressed verbally to both the legal service of the European Commission and the Council. Spain, no doubt of that approach, but it requires written assurances that never can be established that the reading of the text. So far no one has found the magic formula. Brussels and the rest of member States are reluctant to reopen the text because then more than one would want to tweak it. Spain requires at least one addendum or any formula legally binding that allows you to defend this argument, if this is the case, before a court.
sources consulted in Brussels contend that such a tagline related to the legal systems of each country responds to Northern Ireland. Perhaps the biggest internal battle that has raised May in your country is to ensure that any agreement intended to avoid a physical border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will pose different conditions to the british territory with respect to the rest of the Uk. That is to say, that it will maintain the integrity of the country, without giving to the region northern ireland-conditions of further approximation to the EU. Even so, Spain feared that this wording would allow in a future to speak of Gibraltar.
The suspicions of Spain with regard to the future of the Rock to the fold of the EU are not new. Diplomacy has complained from the first moment that the team of negotiators of the EU for the Brexit, Michel Barnier, I wasn’t paying enough attention to this conflict, while the Northern Ireland affected all the negotiation of the divorce of the british. The own president Mariano Rajoy came to raise it in a European Council, although the emphasis in Spanish in this matter has been far less than it has devoted to Ireland to your problem with the output of Northern Ireland.
ultimately, Spain would not lose their right of veto over any future relationship with Gibraltar even if the text of the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration they would stay intact. Because the agreement of future relationship with that agreed upon, the Twenty-seven to London in a few years would require a unanimous vote (it would probably be a mixed arrangement and, therefore, with obligation of ratification in all national parliaments). But Spain does not want to wait until then to raise the objections. Believes that the time is now. Sources of negotiation they remember that you had to accept the peculiar status of Gibraltar when Spain acceded to the EU. The uniqueness of having a colony of a member country ─Uk─ located adjacent to the space of another ─Spain─ and outside part of the eu regulation brings to Spain numerous fiscal problems, and environmental police. “In 1985 we swallow because we had no other choice but to enter into the EU in 1986. Now we will not do so”, say those sources.
