By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton NB] Times & Transcript
Gibraltar is a small peninsula, barely seven square kilometres in area and populated by a little more than 33,000 inhabitants. Despite its size, this territory has been of great interest to the international community throughout history. It remains so, especially in light of the new challenge it faces in the post-Brexit age.
Very few territories have undergone the historical, political, economic and legal transformation that Gibraltar has. It has been the subject of territorial disputes between great powers and remains so today. This rocky and arid territory has faced and overcome multiple obstacles to become one of the places with the highest living standards in the world.
The strategic “rock” at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea was captured by Anglo-Dutch forces in 1704, a move aided also by Catalan volunteers as part of the War of the Spanish Succession and was incorporated into the British Empire.
Despite ceding Gibraltar to Britain in 1713, Spain has long sought to reclaim this southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula. To this day, Spain remains committed to its recovery.
Spain has often been accused of deliberately holding up traffic by slowing down checks at the frontier to generate long delays, especially at times of tension between the two sides.
Gibraltar’s 2006 Constitution introduced a new term, the “non-colonial,” to describe Gibraltar’s relationship with Britain. But Gibraltar remains on the United Nations’ Special Committee on Decolonisation list, with formal decolonisation as the only permissible end-game, irrespective of the wishes of the people of Gibraltar, who are not Spanish and don’t wish to become so.
As a British territory, Gibraltar was forced to leave the European Union following the United Kingdom’s 2016 membership referendum, won by the leave side -- despite Gibraltarians voting 96 per cent to remain. But with Britain now having left the EU, the post-Brexit era will require a new framework for relations between Gibraltar and Spain.
Gibraltar needs to reinforce its role and its relationship with Spain, particularly now that its EU linkage needs to be rebuilt. Whereas right-wing parties in Madrid seek confrontation and polarisation for electoral gain and have put forward various proposals for co-sovereignty, the left wing has adopted a more conciliatory approach in which it strives to negotiate and encourage cross-border channels of dialogue.
In April 2017, British Prime Minister Theresa May reiterated that Britain would seek the best possible deal for Gibraltar, and “there would be no negotiation on the sovereignty of Gibraltar without the consent of its people.”
Madrid and London need to set out how the shared border will be transformed now that it as a boundary between the EU and the rest of the world. Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, has explained that these talks have focused on preserving free movement for the 15,000 workers who daily cross the border that divides Spain and Gibraltar, while steering clear of the centuries-old sovereignty dispute between London and Madrid.
Picardo has advocated that this fluidity could be protected by Gibraltar joining the Schengen Area – a move that would see Gibraltar establish closer ties to the EU. It would see Gibraltar join the 26 European countries that currently allow free movement of people through the Schengen treaty and turn the airport and seaport of the territory into the EU’s newest external border.
On Dec. 31, Spain and Britain reached an agreement in principle under which Gibraltar would join the Schengen Area. The deal would subject British nationals that arrive in Gibraltar to passport control while Spaniards would be able to cross freely into the territory. It would be policed by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
In the last round of talks Picardo lavished praise on former Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya over her negotiating spirit. Her successor, Jose Manuel Albares, is familiar with the detail of the political agreement. Picardo wants to finalise this as a treaty soon but added: “It’s not easy.”
What of Gibraltar’s eventual long-term status? One option might be for Gibraltar to become a Free Associated State of the United Kingdom, in the form of a British realm within the Commonwealth. Useful precedents would be the Cook Islands and Niue, two such entities associated with New Zealand.
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