By Benjamin Fox

 

BRUSSELS, 19 Feb. - (ANA) - Gibraltar will finally obtain free movement into Spain within the coming days, after the European Commission confirmed it had published the draft law that will govern the UK territory. 

 

In a statement on Tuesday (17 February), the EU Commission said that it had finalised the legal text of an agreement between EU and UK officials last December. It added that the agreement would be provisionally applied after being signed off by EU ministers , pending approval by the European Parliament. 

 

With the formal sign off likely to be a formality that brings to a close one of the lengthiest sagas of the Brexit process over the legal status of Gibraltar, a self-governing British overseas territory which sits at the southern-most tip of Spain, that brought up long-standing tensions between the UK and Spain about Gibraltar’s sovereignty.  

 

Gibraltar was unique among the British overseas territories in having its citizens casting a vote in the 2016 referendum.

 

Though the UK as a whole voted by a 51.6-48.4 percent margin to leave the bloc, 96 percent of Gibraltarians voted ‘Remain’.

 

Its status was then further complicated by the decision by the Theresa May and Boris Johnson governments to end free movement by taking the UK out of the single market. 

 

The rapid turnover of governments in the UK, meanwhile, further delayed trilateral talks between Spain, the EU and the UK. 

 

Under the deal, all checks at the crossing point between Gibraltar and La Linea in Spain will be scrapped for the estimated 15,000 people who travel across in both directions every day. 

 

But the agreement also removes all physical barriers, checks and controls on goods circulating between Spain and Gibraltar.

 

That means that Gibraltar, which is not covered by the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement that governs post-Brexit trade between the UK and EU, de facto becomes part of the EU’s single market. 

 

For the EU, full Schengen checks will be carried out by Spain.  

 

“This is about legal certainty, confidence for businesses and people as well as a cooperative future that reinforces our mutual relationship,” said EU trade commissioner Maroš Šef?ovi?, in a statement. 

 

The lack of legal certainty has left cross-border trade between Spain and Gibraltar operating on an ad hoc basis. 

 

Gibraltar was the final unresolved issue between the EU and the UK after they settled the Northern Ireland dispute in March 2023.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/20 February 2026 - - -