LONDON — Soccer fans in Atlanta may be exchanging chants about the Falklands — but there’s another British Overseas Territory making news today.
The 118-year-old border between Gibraltar and Spain will disappear on Wednesday. You can thank Brexit.
Today is the culmination of a decade of uncertainty for the British Mediterranean territory, which back in 2016 voted by 95.9 percent to stay in the EU — but was pulled out against its will.
Life immediately became harder for the thousands of people who cross the Gibraltar-Spain border every day, including 15,000 Spaniards who go to work in the territory.
Passport checks became more onerous and transporting goods became more complicated. As a result Brussels, London, Gibraltar and Madrid have spent the last 10 years negotiating an agreement to remove physical border controls from the frontier with Spain.
It’s an ironic move given it was triggered by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. While Gibraltar will remain fully British and sovereign, the border will become, for the most part, just a line on a map.
The agreement’s details will be familiar to anyone who has ever taken a Eurostar train under the English Channel. As at London St Pancras station, passengers arriving at Gibraltar’s airport will go through both Gibraltarian passport controls and EU passport controls in succession. Once through, they’ll be free to roam both Gibraltar and the Schengen area, provided they get the approval of both authorities.
As a result, Gibraltar and Spain will do away with border controls at the land border. Gibraltar will also align with various EU single market and customs rules to ease the flow of goods, which have sometimes become harder to source since Brexit.
Gibraltar is adamant it isn’t joining the EU passport-free Schengen area. Legally, it is right.
For many passengers, though, it will feel pretty similar, with no passport checks to walk into Spain. The difference will be that Gibraltar will still set its own visa policy.
The U.K’s Europe Minister Stephen Doughty is formally signing the agreement Tuesday in Brussels with the EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.
The deal was a bipartisan effort on the British side, with former Foreign Secretary David Cameron working to get it over the line during his time in office. In spring 2024 the deal looked close to being done — only for Rishi Sunak to call an election. The resulting change in government delayed it by another year.
Some critics, notably Tory Euroskeptics, have said the agreement harms Gibraltar’s sovereignty, but the Rock’s government is very keen on the plan.
“Brexit was sold to the British people in a false prospectus,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the Telegraph newspaper in the run-up to the dismantling of the border. “The United Kingdom needs to seriously reconsider its relationship with the European Union, whether that is to return to membership or a much closer relationship.”