The entry into force of the agreement between the European Union and Great Britain on the future of Gibraltar settles the last unresolved issue after Brexit, the United Kingdom’s exit from Europe six years ago.
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And paradoxically it also constitutes the first step in the reconstruction of freedom of movement of people and goods between the British territory and the entire European community because, once signed, the Union and Great Britain will share borders and partly, maritime and air customs in the Rock. An unprecedented solution.
The agreement, a document of more than a thousand pages, will not change in any way the status of Gibraltar as part of the British territory and that is perhaps the main reproach made by the Spanish nationalists who continue to champion the cause of Spanish Gibraltar. In that line are PP and Vox.
The Union and the current government of Spain have not negotiated the surrender of Gibraltar to Spain after more than three centuries. The agreement is much more pragmatic and resolves the movement of people, especially the more than 15,000 workers from the Campo de Gibraltar who live from economic activity in the Rock and the goods that now transit between the two borders.
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The fence, where those going to one side and the other of the border spent hours daily waiting for police controls, will disappear which does not mean that the police will stop controlling entry to Gibraltar.
Furthermore, it establishes a certain fiscal harmonization so that Gibraltar assumes some indirect and special taxes that are collected in the Union including VAT which in Gibraltar will have an average rate of 15% in the first years. Likewise, employment in the Rock will be subject to community and Spanish labor legislation.
For the municipalities of the Campo de Gibraltar and for Andalusia, the disappearance of the fence and the progressive harmonization of labor and commercial rights and duties constitutes an opportunity to resolve the enormous income inequality between the British territory and the municipalities on the other side of the border.
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