EU's Brexit chief predicts Britain will cave to Spanish demands over Gibraltar

The flags of the UK, Gibraltar and the EU. Brexit has reignited the row over the Rock's sovereignty.
The flags of the UK, Gibraltar and the EU. Brexit has reignited the row over the Rock's sovereignty. Credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Michel Barnier has predicted that Britain will cave to Spanish demands over Gibraltar in Brexit talks between EU-backed Madrid and London.

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said Spain could use the “lever of unanimous solidarity” from the other 26 member countries of the bloc to get its way over the Rock.

Madrid has since made a string of demands, including the joint control of Gibraltar’s airport, cross-border cooperation on smuggling and ending what Spain sees as a tax haven with far lower corporation rates by its shores.

“This lever is there and the British know it well,” Mr Barnier said, “and I think that the lever of solidarity which we have given to Spain will be effective.”

The EU gave Spain an effective veto over any final Brexit deal, including the transition period, applying to Gibraltar, the subject of centuries of wrangling over its sovereignty.

That put a political timebomb under the ongoing Brexit negotiations because Britain insists it will not leave Gibraltar, behind when it quits the EU.

Relations were strained after Brexit Secretary David Davis said that the transition deal extending Britain’s single market and customs union membership would apply to Gibraltar at a Brussels press conference.

“Mr Davis can explain what I want, but I know what's in this agreement,” Mr Barnier told Spanish newspaper El Espanol.

“I am the representative of Spain in this negotiation, as well as the other 26 countries,” he said before agreeing the Spanish demands were reasonable.

Mr Barnier said the European Council would need to assess the situation if no deal was made but “normally” it would mean Gibraltar would leave the EU without a transition deal in place.

“Do not put me in this scenario. My scenario is that, thanks to this lever, there will be an agreement between the United Kingdom and Spain.”

Mr Barnier has solidly backed Ireland in talks over the Irish border after Brexit and the EU-27 have brought their collective pressure to bear on Britain, drawing a string of concessions from Theresa May during the negotiations.

British negotiators now face a race against time to find a solution to avoid the return of a hard border or agree to a backstop clause that would keep Northern Ireland in the single market and customs union.

Mr Barnier denied that clause would create a new border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. Instead it would just involve checks similar to those in place on the island of Ireland already.

He said that the EU would press for a deal that granted EU fisherman continued access to British waters after Brexit and pointed out that 60% of UK processed fishing products were sold to the single market.

“We are going to seek a balanced agreement between our access to British territorial waters and their access to our markets,” he said.

The former commissioner, who is French, has been tipped to take over from Jean-Claude Juncker as the next European Commission president.

Asked about his ambitions, he said: “It is true that I am able to do several things at once and that is what I am doing now: Brexit, Brexit and Brexit. I will not be disturbed by other considerations.”

The next round of Brexit negotiations begins on Monday. 

 

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