Gibraltar’s post-Brexit border with Spain in limbo

(29 Dec 2020) While corks may have popped in London and Brussels over reaching the relative certainty of a post-Brexit trade deal after years of delays and negotiations, there was one rocky speck of British soil still left in limbo. Gibraltar, known colloquially as The Rock, is a UK colony jutting off the southern tip of Spain's mainland. But it was not included in the agreement announced on Christmas Eve between the European Union and the UK to reorganise commercial and trade relations between the now 27-member bloc and the first nation to exit the group    The deadline for Gibraltar remains 1 January, when a transitionary period regulating the short frontier between Gibraltar and Spain expires. If no deal is reached, there are serious concerns that a hard border would cause disruption for the workers, tourists and major business connections across the two sides.   More than 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, making up about 50% of Gibraltar's labour force, and their cross-border journeys help make up the 30 million annual crossings. Oscar Aguilera is a 40-year-old resident of La Linea De La Concepcion, the Spanish town that borders Gibraltar. Every day, he crosses the frontier to work for a cleaning company based on The Rock. Aguilera says he relies heavily on a fluid border for his daily work commute and worries about what will happen if there is no deal. The Rock was ceded to the UK in 1713, and for three centuries, the strategic outcrop of high terrain has given its navy command of the narrow seaway linking the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. Spain, however, has never dropped its claim to sovereignty over it and throughout the Brexit talks, it insisted it wants a say on the future of Gibraltar. It succeeded in convincing the EU to separate the issue of Gibraltar from the wider Brexit negotiations, meaning that Madrid is handling all talks directly with its counterparts in Gibraltar and London. The Spanish foreign ministry has warned that if an agreement is not reached before 1 January, the long lines of stranded truck drivers seen at the English Channel crossing could be repeated. On Monday Spain's foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya reiterated that her government wants to reach a deal, adding that "there's no plan B", and that "either there's a deal with the United Kingdom or there's a hard border." Lorenzo Pérez-Periañez, who represents the La Linea Association of Small and Medium enterprises, has no doubt that a hard border would be devastating for the economies of both Gibraltar and Spain. But he is keen to stress that it's not all about the financial impact, as border restrictions will impact families living on both sides. Gibraltar's population of about 34,000 was overwhelmingly against leaving the EU. In the UK's 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU, because they felt the trade bloc would give them more leverage to deal with Madrid. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...