ReachExtra
UPDATE: AN AGREEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED. CLICK HERE
With a few short hours before the United Kingdom and Gibraltar leave the European Union, there is a wall of silence from all parties (the UK, Spain and Gibraltar) relating to Gibraltar.
However, the silence is clearly not a sign of lack of activity.
The indefinite postponement today of a pre-arranged meeting between the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha Gonzalez Laya and the “Lehendakari” (Basque Regional President) Iñigo Urkullo, indicate that there is feverish activity between the foreign ministries in London and Madrid to try to resolve Gibraltar issues.
According to sources close to the Basque government in Vitoria, the reason for the postponement is that Gonzalez Laya is fully occupied with Gibraltar discussions.
The last public announcements relating to the Gibraltar Brexit negotiation was that Spain had extended the rights of British Citizens included in the Withdrawal Agreement to Gibraltarians up to the 30th of June 2021 to mitigate the effects on Gibraltar and the region of a no-deal result.
The Spanish government decree extends all workers’ rights, free healthcare in Spain and the recognition of Gibraltar driving licenses to Gibraltarians together with the ability to work in Spain.
There has been no public response from either the UK or Gibraltar whose authorities have however indicated that they are pulling all the stops to try to reach an agreement and, as is well known, Gibraltar has extended all relevant workers’ rights to Spanish trans frontier workers.
