BRUSSELS, 10 November (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has asked the European Commission this Thursday to speed up negotiations with the UK to close the agreement defining EU relations with Gibraltar after a lack of progress after thirteen months.

During his visit to the community capital to meet with the Commissioner for Interagency Relations, Maros Sefcovic, who is in charge of relations with the UK, the Foreign Secretary demanded that he increase the pace of his meetings with the UK and had presented the “Spanish global proposal” for the Rock and Campo de Gibraltar regions.

“There is a global proposal that I have transferred to you and that the Commission should make its own and provide content to the agreement,” Albares said, insisting on the need to end the dialogue between London and Brussels and immediately begin drafting the bill. Agreed.

However, he has indicated he feels “political will on both sides” to move forward and has been “positive” about the resumption of talks that have seen several changes of government in London and the crisis resulting from the pandemic.

Madrid and London announced in December 2020 a provisional agreement for Gibraltar that would avoid chaos on January 1, 2021, when Brexit would be finalized without previously setting a specific framework for the region’s relations with the European Union.

Later, Spain said it had reached an agreement with Britain to remove land barriers and announced that agents from the European Border Control Agency would take control of entrances and exits through Gibraltar’s airports and ports.

The European Commission, however, in its proposal for a negotiating mandate for 27 people exclusively handed over responsibility to Spanish authorities for controlling the measures should the Gate be dropped, something to the annoyance of the British Government which deemed such extreme measures “unacceptable”. .