BRUSSELS/GIBRALTAR, July 14 (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union formally signed a treaty on the status of Gibraltar on Tuesday, following an agreement struck last year aimed at easing border crossings and ending years of political uncertainty over the British overseas territory.
The treaty was signed in Brussels by European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, British Minister of State for Europe Stephen Doughty, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
Gibraltar residents can cross over to Spain using residence cards without needing to have their passports stamped, while Spanish citizens can cross using a government ID card. The deal is designed to facilitate the movement of people and goods and avoid lengthy delays for the roughly 15,000 workers who cross the border each day.
Albares said the deal opened a new chapter for Gibraltar, Spain, Britain and the European Union. He said it would benefit the 300,000 residents of the Campo de Gibraltar region by improving connectivity, encouraging investment and strengthening cross-border cooperation, while replacing centuries of mistrust with a shared future built on coexistence and prosperity.
Britain won Gibraltar — a strategically important enclave at the southern tip of Spain — in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of Spanish Succession.
Those arriving at Gibraltar airport will show their passports to both Gibraltar and Spanish border officers, and Britain wants a system similar to French police operating at London’s St Pancras railway station for the Eurostar service.
Residents welcomed the dismantling of border controls.
“It is good for Spaniards and good for us. It’s fantastic,” Gibraltar resident Elisabeth Tanino told Reuters.
Gibraltarian Lidia Mifsud added that Gibraltar and the nearby Spanish town of La Linea had long enjoyed close ties and that the removal of border checks would make daily life easier for workers and residents on both sides.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; additional reporting by Jaime Lopez in Gibraltar and Emma Pinedo in Madrid;Editing by Phil Blenkinsop and Sharon Singleton)