David Lammy<\/a> said the agreement was a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d after years of uncertainty and that the UK\u2019s commitment to Gibraltar \u201cremains as solid as the Rock itself\u201d.<\/p>\nIt comes after decades of problems at the border with Spain, which claims Gibraltar for its own. The issue became a crisis for Gibraltans when the UK left the EU and, in effect, ended freedom of movement with the rest of the bloc.<\/p>\n
The UK has had control over Gibraltar since 1713 via the Treaty of Utrecht as part of the compensation for Britain to withdraw from the War of the Spanish Succession. <\/p>\n
It currently hosts an RAF base at its airport and an important naval facility.<\/p>\n
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the deal, saying: \u201cIt safeguards the integrity of Schengen and the single market, while ensuring stability, legal certainty and prosperity for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibraltar\u2019s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, said the deal would \u201cprotect future generations of British Gibraltarians and does not in any way affect our British sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow is the time to look beyond the arguments of the past and towards a time of renewed cooperation and understanding. Now the deal is done, it\u2019s time to finalise the treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Lammy held talks with Gibraltar\u2019s leaders, members of the opposition and the business community before leaving the British overseas territory to head to Brussels on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Gibraltar is heavily in favour of remaining a British overseas territory.<\/p>\n
The last time it voted on a proposal to share sovereignty with Spain, in 2002, almost 99 per cent of Gibraltarians rejected the move.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives reiterated that \u201cGibraltar is British\u201d, warning of Labour\u2019s \u201crecord of surrendering our territory\u201d in past negotiations. <\/p>\n
Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said: \u201cThe last Conservative government worked closely with the chief minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, and set out clearly the terms for the negotiations and our red lines, and we will now examine if this deal meets those.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe Conservative Party in government, and now in opposition, has always been clear that any deal must ensure that the sovereignty and rights of Gibraltar are safeguarded in full and must carry the support of the government and people of Gibraltar, as well as protect constitutional arrangements.\u201d <\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said: \u201cI\u2019m glad to see we\u2019re one step closer to a proper trade deal with the EU \u2013 but it\u2019s vital that parliament is given the opportunity to scrutinise the details of this agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no question mark left over the status of Britain\u2019s sovereignty of the Rock and our commitment to the self-determination of Gibraltarians. This deal must work in their interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Tom Brufatto, from pro-EU campaigners Best for Britain, said: \u201cIn much the same way that we have French border guards in St Pancras station, it seems that this pragmatic agreement will allow Spanish officials to operate in Gibraltar airport, providing much needed certainty for the thousands who cross the border every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be optimistic that this agreement removes an obstacle to greater EU-UK cooperation in other areas, which can bring prices down for UK consumers and restore opportunities back to British citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-185697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114685988294855643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749969199_100_509f6c28a16e6f41166c3f8c25dfd9a3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ5NzQwOTUz-2.41999298.jpg\")
There will be dual border control checks for arrivals by air at Gibraltar airport (PA)<\/p>\n