News: Spain stands still and demands a right of veto with regard to Gibraltar after the Brexit

Who would have thought that Spain would stand in the way of an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom?

The Spanish government has indicated that they only agree with an agreement on the Brexit if it is on paper that the country is involved in all decisions concerning Gibraltar, the British peninsula located in Spain.

Thanks in part to the steadfast attitude of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his government, the Brexit summit is under pressure on Sunday. Spain already points out that if the country does not get a right of veto, the summit in Brussels does not make any sense either. While the Prime Minister of Spain is on a state visit to the island of Cuba (for the first time in years), the British Prime Minister Theresa May is negotiating in Brussels.

In short, everything around the Brexit went as planned until an amendment to Article 184 was made at the beginning of this week and Spain did not agree with it. It is the penultimate article of the 185 in the 500-page agreement stating that Great Britain is doing everything it can to solve problems after the transaction, but that is not enough for Spain.

The Spanish Government would explicitly state that Gibraltar was included in the agreement because otherwise it would be possible to decide without Gibraltar approval without involving Spain in these decisions. In Gibraltar many Spaniards work every day to cross the border and there are also many Britons who go to Spain every day. To prevent future problems, Spain wants to be able to decide.

For the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, it is very clear: if the attitude around Gibraltar does not change, the Brexit summit next Sunday also makes no sense. Brussels has indicated that they want to add a supplementary document stating that Spain is taking part in decisions regarding Gibraltar and that Great Britain must respect this.

The rock

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory on the south side of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It covers an area of 6.8 km2 and a northern border with Andalusia in Spain.

Gibraltar was conquered in 1704 during the Spanish Succession War by an English-Dutch army in Spain. The area was then "forever" transferred to the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht, something that has been bothering Spain since then.

According to the Spanish negotiator in Brussels, that text looks good and even goes beyond what Spain demanded, but the British prime minister does not want to put anything on paper yet and only wants to deliver on the promise. That is not enough for Spain at the moment.