The European council said Gibraltar could only be included in a trade deal with Spain’s agreement. Photograph: Ragel/EPA/Rex/Shutterstock
The EU will not back down in its support for Spain’s demands over control of the Rock of Gibraltar in Brexit negotiations, senior European diplomats have said.
The European council, whose members comprise the EU member states, shocked Downing Street by saying the British overseas territory could only be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels with Spain’s agreement.
On Sunday Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, echoed comments made privately by British officials, suggesting that as the Spanish demand lay only in the draft negotiating guidelines from the council, it may drop out by the time they are due to be formally adopted by the 27 member states at a summit in Brussels on 29 April.
“That’s just a draft at the moment,” Picardo said during an appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. “Let’s see what comes back on 29 April.”
However senior EU diplomats, talking to the Guardian, have dismissed the suggestion that the EU will go soft on the issue of Gibraltar in the coming weeks, and warned that Spain had spent time and effort in cultivating support among the other 26 member states on the position.
“Spain are taking this very, very seriously,” one diplomat said. “I think there is support across the board among the member states. Why not?
“It is not a problem that was born yesterday. It has been with us a long time and we have always listened to both sides. Now we are going to support the member state. That is the philosophy behind it. I wouldn’t think any of the 26 other states will somehow try to undermine this clause.”
On Sunday Theresa May informed Picardo that the British government would “never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes”.
Downing Street said May reiterated the “long-standing position that the UK remains steadfastly committed to our support for Gibraltar, its people and its economy”.
But EU officials said they were surprised May had not mentioned the future of Gibraltar in her six-page letter notifying the EU of the UK’s intention to leave the union, delivered to the European council’s president, Donald Tusk, on Wednesday.
“I was personally surprised,” said one diplomat. “But if Theresa May thinks the status of Gibraltar and its border with Spain is of little significance, the EU does not.”
Picardo insisted his administration had worked closely with the prime minister on her letter. He told the BBC the government had included Gibraltar in its preparations for Brexit talks, and included the issue in a white paper, even if it was not specifically referred to in May’s article 50 notification letter.
He also insisted he was assured Britain would never allow Gibraltar to fall out of a trade deal agreed by the EU and the UK. “Therein lies the rub,” he said. “When we get the deal on Brexit, it must be a deal that applies across the United Kingdom in respect of future trade and if there is such a deal, it is only fair, proper and right that it should also apply to Gibraltar.”
Pushed as to whether Britain would really stand by Gibraltar if offered a great deal for the country, but one that Spain insisted should not apply to the rock, Picardo added: “The people of Gibraltar have expressed their views as to the sovereignty of Gibraltar be democratically and freely.”
Spain has long sought co-sovereignty of Gibraltar, but the current push for a say in the future of the territory may have more to do with a desire to torpedo the current super-low corporate tax rate that makes the rock attractive to the financial services sector.
Spain also argues that Gibraltar’s airport is illegally located. It says the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ceded the castle, port and town of Gibraltar to Britain, did not include the rights to the isthmus on which the landing strip is built.
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